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

The Changing Face of Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity: Negrismo and N?gritudelooks primarily at Negrismo and N?gritude, 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 Guill?n, Manuel del Cabral, and Pal?s Matos. This search is extended to the N?gritude movement through the poems of L?opold Senghor, L?on-Gontran Damas, and Aim? C?saire. Mamadou Badiane further discusses the under-represented N?gritude 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 N?gritude movement both identified themselves as descendants of Africans and were proud to proclaim their African heritage, the members of the Antillanit? and Cr?olit? movements see themselves as a product of miscegenation between different cultures.

Recommended. Choice Reviews

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. Chasqui: Revista de Literature Latinoamericana

The Changing Face of Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity is an important book that contl³/