Race, Culture, and Identity

In this groundbreaking book, Shireen Lewis gives a comprehensive analysis of the literary and theoretical discourse on race, culture, and identity by Francophone and Caribbean writers beginning in the early part of the twentieth century and continuing into the dawn of the new millennium.

In this groundbreaking book, Shireen Lewis gives a comprehensive analysis of the literary and theoretical discourse on race, culture, and identity by Francophone and Caribbean writers beginning in the early part of the twentieth century and continuing into the dawn of the new millennium. Examining the works of Patrick Chamoiseau, Rapha`l Confiant, AimZ CZsaire, LZopold Senghor, LZon Damas, and Paulette Nardal, Lewis traces a move away from the preoccupation with African origins and racial and cultural purity, toward concerns of hybridity and fragmentation in the New World or Diasporic space. In addition to exploring how this shift parallels the larger debate around modernism and postmodernism, Lewis makes a significant contribution by arguing for the inclusion of Martinican intellectual Paulette Nardal, and other women into the canon as significant contributors to the birth of modern black Francophone literature.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Légitime Défense: A Precursor to Modern Black Francophone Literature
Chapter 3 What Was Négritude?
Chapter 4 Gendering Négritude: Paulette Nardal's Contribution to the Birth of Modern Francophone Literature
Chapter 5 Rerooting the Uprooted: Edouard Glissant's Antillanité and Beyond
Chapter 6 The Créolité Movement: Reconfiguring Identity in the Caribbean in the Late Twentieth Century