African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
229 p, Incorporating postcolonial theory, West Indian literature, feminist theory, and African American literary criticism, Making Men carves out a particular relationship between the Caribbean canon--as represented by C. L. R. James and V. S. Naipaul, among others--and contemporary Caribbean women writers such as Jean Rhys, and Jamaica Kincaid, Paule Marshall, and Michelle Cliff, who now live in the United States.
The author introduces the reader to the work and importance of Haitian writer Dany Laferrire, whose acclaimed work 'Comment faire l'amour avec un Ngre sans se fatiguer' put him on an international stage
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
199 p, "At the center of Jamaican-born Michelle, Cliff's novels is the exploration of the interplay between memory and history. Noraida Agosto examines Cliff's representation of memory as the part of history that has been suppressed because of its revolutionary potential. Memories of slave rebellions, for instance, were erased through omission from official historical accounts to discourage resistance among slaves. Cliff's novels are an attempt to recover these erased memories, which could generate resistance to modern oppressions. This recovery of devalued memories also entails a validation of non-elite beliefs, languages, and art forms in order to debunk dominant practices." (Book jacket);
Kuwabong suggests that both Lorna Goodison's and Claire Harris's poetic of matrilineage survives on their positive representation of the mother-daughter relationship, which ideologically borders on the Caribbean concept of a daughter becoming her mother
The history of Haiti began with the historic defeat of French imperialism and the establishment of the first Black republic in world history but has degenerated into tragic maldevelopment under U.S. imperialism, including two periods of military occupation. Haitian literature, especially in novels written by women, reflects the racist and sexist oppression of the U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.
