The Changing Face of Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity: Negrismo and Negritude

The Changing Face of Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity: Negrismo and Négritude looks primarily at Negrismo and Négritude, two literary movements that appeared in the Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean as well as in Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. It draws on speeches and manifestos, and use cultural studies to contextualize ideas. It poses the bases of both movements in the Caribbean and in Africa, and lays out the literary antecedents that influenced or shaped both movements. This book examines the search for cultural identity through the poetry of Nicolas Guillén, Manuel del Cabral, and Palés Matos. This search is extended to the Négritude movement through the poems of Léopold Senghor, Léon-Gontran Damas, and Aimé Césaire. Mamadou Badiane further discusses the under-represented Négritude women writers who were silenced by their male counterparts during the first half of the twentieth century. Ultimately, this is a book on Caribbean cultural identity that shows it in a slippery and fluctuating zone. By demonstrating that while the founders of the Négritude movement both identified themselves as descendants of Africans and were proud to proclaim their African heritage, the members of the Antillanité and Créolité movements see themselves as a product of miscegenation between different cultures.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Searching for Identity: The First Light of Dawn Chapter 3 Caribbean and African Cultural Labyrinths Chapter 4 Negrismo and Négritude: Reflection on Two Poetics of Caribbean Identity Chapter 5 Identity Conflicts Chapter 6 Conclusion

About the Author :
Mamadou Badiane is assistant professor of Hispanic Studies at University of Missouri-Columbia.

Review :
Recommended. Mamadou Badiane makes an important contribution not only to Francophone and Hispanophone Studies separately, but also to an emerging field whereby the Caribbean is studied as a whole, in spite of linguistic differences. This text is useful for both generalists and specialists who wish to learn more about the writings born in adjacent islands. The Changing Face of Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity is an important book that contributes to a better understanding of the Afro-Caribbean cultural identity from an interdisciplinary standpoint.