Caribbean Literature
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Most Important Caribbean Writers
Derek Walcott (23.01.1930) Walcott raised in Castries, Saint Lucia. He
has lived most of his life in Trinidad. His family was of mixed race
and ethnicity; he had two white grandfathers and two black
grandmothers. His father was a Bohemian artist;
he died when Walcott was very young. His family reflects the complex
colonial history of the island which he explores in his poetry. He
received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is currently Professor
of poetry at the University of Essex. He has
published more than twenty plays, the majority of which have been
produced by the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, and have also been widely
staged elsewhere. Many of them address, either directly or indirectly,
the liminal status of the West Indies in the post-colonial
period. His poems are characterized by allusions to the
English poetic tradition and a symbolic imagination that is at once
personal and Caribbean. Walcott identifies as "absolutely a Caribbean
writer", a pioneer, helping to make sense of the legacy of deep
colonial damage. In such poems as "The Castaway" (1965) and in the play
Pantomime (1978), he uses the metaphors of shipwreck and Crusoe to
describe the culture and what is required of artists after colonialism
and slavery: both the freedom and the challenge to begin again, salvage
the best of other cultures and make something new.
V. S. Naipaul (17.08.1932) Sir
Vidiadhar Surajprasad "V. S." Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad
and Tobago, to parents of Indian descent. He is focused on writing about the history of areas and peoples that are
usually forgotten. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Nobel Prize in 2001,
the Booker Prize in 1971, and a knighthood for services to literature in
1990. He has also written works of non-fiction, such as
travel writing and essays.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (06.03.1927) Gabriel
Jose de la Concordia Garcia Marquez was born in
the town of Aracataca, Colombia. Considered one of the most significant
authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt
International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in
Literature. Garcaa began his career as a journalist while studying law
at the University of Cartagena. His works have achieved significant
critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for
popularizing a literary style labeled as magic realism, which uses
magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic
situations. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called
Macondo (the town mainly inspired by his birthplace Aracataca), and
most of them express the theme of solitude.
Miguel Angel Asturias (1899-1974) Asturias was born and raised in Guatemala though he lived a significant part of his adult life abroad. He was a poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and diplomat. Asturias helped establish Latin American literature's
contribution to mainstream Western culture, and at the same time drew
attention to the importance of indigenous cultures, especially those of
his native Guatemala. In 1967 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, only the second Latin American to receive this honor.
Saint-John Perse (1887-1975) Saint-John Perse, pseudonym for Alexis Saint-Leger, was born in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
His great-grandfather, a solicitor, had settled in Guadeloupe in 1815.
His grandfather and father were also solicitors; his father was also a
member of the City Council. The Leger family owned two plantations, one
of coffee (La Josephine) and the other of sugar (Bois-Debout). His literary work was published partly under his own name, but
chiefly under the pseudonyms St. J. Perse and Saint-John Perse.
In 1960 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Some Caribbean Novels
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719) Robinson Crusoe is the story of an Englishman castaway on a remote tropical island near Trinidad for 28 years, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.
Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island (1883) Treasure
Island tells of Jim Hawkin's boyhood adventure on a quest for buried
treasure. The book was inspired by a real treasure buried on Norman
Island in the BVI.
Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea (1951) The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a battle between an old, experienced Cuban fisherman and a large marlin.
Samuel Selvon: A Brighter Sun (1952) The story centers on a young Indian native, who
is placed in an arranged marriage at age 16. Leaving home with his
equally-young bride, he struggles to come to terms with his
newly-acquired adult status and proving that he has, in fact, reached
true manhood. The story also delves into the lives of his multi-ethnic neighbors in his new community of Barataria, the Fantastic Racism
that is both subtly and openly expressed there and throughout Trinidad
at large, and how the nation as a whole is affected by the war happening
hundreds of miles away from the Caribbean shores.
Michael Anthony: Green Days by the River (1956) A novel about a boy on the edge of adult responsibilities. It is the story of
Shellie, a Trinidadian boy who moves to a new village and there meets
two girls. He is charmed by Rosalie but he is attracted to the more
cheerful and accessible Joan.
V. S. Naipaul: Miguel Street (1974) Set during World War II and narrated by an unnamed–but precociously observant–neighborhood boy, Miguel
Street is a work of mercurial mood shifts, by turns sweetly melancholy
and anarchically funny. It overflows with life on every page.
Roger Mais:
The Hills Were Joyful Together (1981) This novel, set in a
yard which is a microcosm of Kingston slum life, sets out as Mais
himself said to give "a true picture of the real Jamaica and the
dreadful condition of the working classes."
Zee Edgell Page: Beka Lamb (1982) Set in Belize, Beka Lamb is the record of a few months in the life of
Beka and her family. The politics of the small colony, the influence of
the matriarchal society and the dominating presence of the Catholic
Church are woven into the fabric of the story to provide a compelling
portrait of ordinary life in Belize.
List of significant Caribbean writers
Antigua
- Marie-Elena John
- Jamaica Kincaid
The Bahamas
- Robert Antoni
- Christian Campbell
Barbados
- Francis Woodbine Blackman
- Kamau Brathwaite
- Timothy Callender
- Austin Clarke
- Frank Collymore
- Geoffrey Drayton
- A. N. Forde
- Anthony Kellman
- George Lamming
- Paule Marshall
- Andrea Stuart
- John Wickham
- Odimumba Kwamdela (J.Ashton Brathwaite)
Cuba
- Antonio Benitez-Rojo
- Carlos Moore (Cuban writer)
- Nancy Morejon
- Nicolas Guillen
- Pedro Perez Sarduy
Dominica
- Phyllis Shand Allfrey
- Gabriel Christian
- Jean Rhys
Dominican Republic
- Julio Vega Battle
- Junot Diaz
- Jose Cepeda Garcia
- Julia Alvarez
- Chiqui Vicioso
- Blas Jimenez
Guadeloupe
- Maryse Conde
- Ernest Pepin
- Gisele Pineau
Guyana
- John Agard
- E. R. Braithwaite
- Jan Carew
- Martin Carter
- Cyril Dabydeen
- David Dabydeen
- Fred D'Aguiar
- O. R. Dathorne
- Beryl Gilroy
- Wilson Harris
- Roy A. K. Heath
- Ruel Johnson
- Oonya Kempadoo
- Peter Kempadoo
- Mark McWatt
- Pauline Melville
- Edgar Mittelholzer
- Grace Nichols
- Sasenarine Persaud
- A. J. Seymour
- Jan Shinebourne
- Eric Walrond
- Denis Williams
Haiti
- Edwidge Danticat
- Rene Depestre
- Marie Vieux Chauvet
- Dany Laferriere
- Jacques Roumain
- Emeric Bergeaud
- Franketienne
- Beaubrun Ardouin
- Emile Nau
- Ignace Nau
Jamaica
- Lindsay Barrett
- Edward Baugh
- Vera Bell
- Alvin Bennett
- Louise Bennett-Coverly
- James Berry
- Lebert Bethune
- Erna Brodber
- George Campbell
- H. D. Carberry
- Colin Channer
- Kwame Dawes
- Jean D'Costa
- Herbert de Lisser
- Andrew Edwards XIV
- Gloria Escoffery
- John Figueroa
- Honor Ford-Smith
- Lorna Goodison
- John Hearne
- A. L. Hendriks
- Constance Hollar
- Nalo Hopkinson
- Marlon James (author)
- Archie Lindo
- Roger Mais
- Una Marson
- Basil McFarlane
- John E. C. McFarlane
- Claude McKay
- Anthony McNeill
- Pamela Mordecai
- Mervyn Morris
- Mutabaruka
- Rex Nettleford
- Orlando Patterson
- Geoffrey Philp
- Velma Pollard
- Patricia Powell
- Claudia Rankine
- V. S. Reid
- Leone Ross
- Namba Roy
- Andrew Salkey
- Dennis Scott
- Olive Senior
- M. G. Smith
- Mikey Smith
- Vivian Virtue
- Anthony C. Winkler
- Sylvia Wynter
Martinique
- Aime Cesaire
- Patrick Chamoiseau
- Frantz Fanon
- Edouard Glissant
Montserrat
Puerto Rico
- Giannina Braschi
- Lola Rodriguez de Tio
- Rosario Ferre
- Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia
- Eugenio Maria de Hostos
- Luis Pales Matos
- Aurora Levins Morales
- Manuel Ramos Otero
- Luis Rafael Sanchez
- Esmeralda Santiago
- Mayra Santos-Febres
- Ana Lydia Vega
- Jose Luis Vega
St Kitts and Nevis
St Lucia
- Kendel Hippolyte
- Jane King
- Garth St Omer
- Derek Walcott
Saint Martin
St Vincent and The Grenadines
Suriname
- Clark Accord
- Gerrit Barron
- John H. de Bye
- R. Dobru
- Albert Helman
- Cynthia McLeod
Trinidad and Tobago
- James Christopher Aboud
- Lyndon Baptiste
- Michael Anthony
- Robert Antoni
- Kevin Baldeosingh
- Dionne Brand
- Lennox Brown
- Wayne Brown
- Vahni Capildeo
- Wilfred Cartey
- Faustin Charles
- Ralph de Boissiere
- Ramabai Espinet
- Albert Gomes
- Cecil Gray
- Frank Hercules
- Errol Hill
- Merle Hodge
- C. L. R. James
- Anthony Joseph
- Ismith Khan
- Roi Kwabena
- Harold "Sonny" Ladoo
- John La Rose
- Earl Lovelace
- Rabindranath Maharaj
- Ian McDonald
- Alfred Mendes
- Shani Mootoo
- Shiva Naipaul
- V. S. Naipaul
- Lakshmi Persaud
- Jennifer Rahim
- Ronald Ramdin
- Eric Roach
- Monique Roffey
- Lawrence Scott
- Samuel Selvon
- Frances-Anne Solomon
- Eintou Pearl Springer
- John Stewart
- Eric Williams
Popular Caribbean Travel Guides
Lonely Planet: Caribbean Islands (Multi Country Guide) Lonely Planet: Eastern Caribbean Islands Frommer's: Caribbean Ports of Call
Source Note: Some information on this and on other pages is taken from Wikipedia.
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