Explores the pros and cons of postcolonial criticism through a zombie, a sensationalized symbol of Afro-Antillean bondage. How reworking the zombie in various cultural and political contexts lays bare the pleasures and perils of postcolonialism; Information on the novel Beso de la mujer araña, by Manuel Puig; Description of the book Wild Saragasso Sea, by Jean Rhys; Discussion on the book The Famished Road, by Ben Okri.;
Fischer reviews the two-volume work Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean: social dynamics and cultural transformations, by Norman E. Whitten Jr. and Arlene Torres>
The African heritage hypothesis posits that the substantial African ancestry of Puerto Ricans explains why this group is less segregated from African-Americans than non-Hispanic whites. This pattern is unlike that of other Hispanic groups, who have been found to be highly segregated from African-Americans but modestly segregated from whites. The research presented here shows that Dominicans, another Hispanic group with substantial African ancestry, are also less segregated from African-Americans than whites. Dominicans, therefore, also appear to be conforming to the African heritage thesis by residing in neighborhoods with greater proximity to African-Americans than whites.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Originally published: Afro-American folktales. c1985., 327 p, These tales range from the earthy comedy of tricksters to stories explaining how the world was created and got to be the way it is, to moral fables that tell of encounters between masters and slaves. They includes stories set down in travelers' reports and plantation journals from the early nineteenth century, tales gathered by collectors such as Joel Chandler Harris and Zora Neale Hurston, and narratives tape-recorded by Roger Abrahams himself during extensive expeditions throughout the American South and the Caribbean.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
85 p, "This analysis of African-Caribbean community organizations is based on original research of 93 Leeds groups and in major organizations there and in London." (Publisher)
