Exam #1 due at start of class

Core Reading: Poems:

Kamau Brathwaite: 
The Arrivants. Our discussion will focus on the last section, "The Islands"
Poems handed out in class

Core Reading: Interviews & Secondary:

Read all of these:

Copy Shop:

Brathwaite: from ConVERSations with Nathaniel Mackey pp 28-57
June Bobb: “Reconceiving Self and World,” from Beating a Restless Drum

Web:
George Mason University Libraries: Expanded Academic ASAP 
If you have not previously used this database, you must access it on campus or via your GMU account from off-campus. Start on the GMU library main page, choose Databases, then scroll down to Expanded Academic ASAP. Using the keyword “Brathwaite,” find the following:
Nathaniel Mackey: Wringing the Word. World Literature Today, Autumn 1994 v68 n4 p733(8) 

[Note: I used this essay to structure the choice of readings from Brathwaite’s rather extended work, so it is essential that you find and read this essay. If you are unable to use Academic ASAP plese ask a classmate to print a copy for you -- or ask me for a hard copy.

MAP Web: Claude McKay>
WePress site w/ Links to Brathwaite information

A Comparative Literature honors thesis from Oberlin College: Barry Eidlin: Crossed Wires, Noisy Signals: Language, Identity, and Resistance in Caribbean Literature. (Unfortunately no mention of Brathwaite, but good for context.)

Additional Sources: Reserve Desk:

Laurence Breiner: An Introduction to West Indian Poetry. Cambridge UP, 1998. 
 An excellent introduction to the history and to the cultural and aesthetic issues of West Indian Anglophone poetry. Sets the context of French and Spanish poetry of the region (including a capsule history of the Negritude poets), narrates the historical development of poetry in English, then discusses relations with “Africa,” “Europe,” and “America” in both their historical and methaphysical aspects. Has good material on Brathwaite. Also includes a chronology of West Indian poets and poetry. Some reading from this book may be assigned.

The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English. Ed. Paula Burnett. London: Penguin, 1986.
 An influential anthology with sections of work from the oral and literary traditions. The introduction is an extraordinarily detailed history of Anglophone poetry in the region.