From the Traumas of the Caribbean to a Revival of Resistant Literature: A West Indian Discourse

Abstract

This paper presents the history of the Caribbean peoples, their traumas, migrations, and their endeavors to recreate a collective cultural identity and go beyond their de-homing status. It focuses on the emergence of a resistant Caribbean literature that has helped in raising the voice of the Caribbean peoples. It conveys their yearnings, anxieties, and confusions, suggesting both geographic displacement and psychological dislocation. Within a post-colonial world that has remained dependent and underdeveloped, migration to Europe became an inevitable process. West Indian writers joined these successive waves of arriving migrants initiating a literature of exile. Later, several exiled post-colonial writers rejected the status of exile in favor of that of a migrant. This shift to the immigrant genre resulted in the writer's acceptance of his or her duality and ambivalence. In this study, the focus of research is to be narrowed down to Anglo-Caribbean writers and those of British West Indies. Hence, this approach to history adopts a descriptive documentary method, based on decisive incidents in the lives of these diasporic people. It relies, as well, on the opinions of theoreticians, writers, and scholars. The findings of this study indicated that Caribbean resistance, in the face of racism and marginalization, is an ongoing process in our contemporary world. They also showed an apparent revival of Caribbean writing, which scholars expect to play a role in enriching and adding to the British and American literatures.

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“…The objectives of colonization through slavery were the domination, submission, humiliation, and dehumanization of African people (Hassan, 2020). The Caribbean territories were deeply impacted by colonialism and by the trafficking and exploitation of African people.…”

“…The Caribbean territories were deeply impacted by colonialism and by the trafficking and exploitation of African people. The forced population transfer from Africa to the Caribbean and the brutality of the plantation economy created inhumane conditions for enslaved people (Hassan, 2020). Nayera M. Hassan (2020) notes that the transatlantic slave trade negatively impacted the ability of African people in the Caribbean to selfdefine in the face of their loss of culture, language, and history.…”

“…The forced population transfer from Africa to the Caribbean and the brutality of the plantation economy created inhumane conditions for enslaved people (Hassan, 2020). Nayera M. Hassan (2020) notes that the transatlantic slave trade negatively impacted the ability of African people in the Caribbean to selfdefine in the face of their loss of culture, language, and history. He argues that the production of resistance literature has helped re-create the cultural identity of slave descendants in the Caribbean.…”