African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
342 p, Examines how the low socioeconomic status of the black population in Cuba informs the representation of black characters in Cuban narrative fiction. From its very first example (Espejo de paciencia, 1608) until the most recent short fiction written after the 1959 Revolution, Cuban narrative fiction has played (and still plays) an important role in creating and maintaining the subaltern position of the black population in Cuba.
211 p., Explores the similarities and differences which characterize the depiction of people of color in certain representative 19th century Cuban and Brazilian slavery novels as a function of the authorial approach of each territory's literary tradition toward the issues of slavery, racial prejudice, and people of color. The selected texts, derived from the peak periods in slavery literature of each territory, include Francisco , by Anselmo Snárez y Romero; Sab , by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda; Cecilia Valdés , by Cirilo Villaverde; A escrava Isaura , by Bernardo Guimarães; O mulato , by Aluísio Azevedo; and Bom-Crioulo , by Adolfo Caminha. While the present study explores the enslavement, abuse, and discrimination of people of color as a consequence of a deep-seated discourse of power, privilege and racial superiority, it focuses more extensively on the representation of people of color, particularly in their capacity to constructively appropriate the cultural values of the white dominant group and recognize their identity as ambiguous.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
216 p., Discusses the literary representations of Afro-descendants in mid- to late-19th century Cuba and Brazil, and how these representations impacted the development of the national narratives and mapped out the future social terrain for blacks and whites in both countries.
