V57.0759.001
Summer 2007
Class mtg: MTW 9:00-11:05 am
KJCC 527
History of the Caribbean
DRAFT SYLLABUS
Anne Eller
Aee218@nyu.edu
Office hours: TBA
Scope and aim of the course:
This class is a survey course intended to provide an overview of the major trends of
Caribbean history from pre-Columbian times through the present day. Topics include the
indigenous societies of the Caribbean, contact with Europeans and the establishment of
plantation societies, slavery and emancipation in the Caribbean and greater Atlantic
world, to anti-colonial struggles and the forming of national identities in the first part of
the course. The second half will build on themes and trajectories of the first, covering
twentieth century neo-colonialism, nationalism, and dictatorships in the Caribbean, the
Cuban Revolution, and major intellectual, cultural, and economic currents of the postwar
years. The last few classes will take a multidisciplinary approach to discuss music,
migration, and popular culture in the Caribbean and diaspora in the twentieth century and
beyond.
Course requirements:
10 1p. response papers to reading – (none for intro/midterm/final; additionally, skip
any 4 classes)
Short (1 page, typed) reading response papers will be due for any ten classes of your
choosing, due at the beginning of that class and no other time (i.e. plan well – because 10
response papers submitted late would be both a ton of work and not accepted). The
response papers should provide reasonable summaries of the work considered (please be
exceedingly careful to cite and use your own words) as well as your own brief analysis of
the authors’ arguments. (20%)
Midterm, Final
There will be a midterm and a final examination. Each will consist of identifications –
for which the student is to identify not just the basic facts of the term presented but also
its broader significance to themes of the course – and one or two essays. The final is
cumulative, but much more focused on the second half of the course. (40%)
Short final paper (6-8 pp)
Students will submit a fairly short final paper (6-8 pp) at the beginning of class on July
31. Papers should tackle a subject of historical significance in the Caribbean by
evaluating the works of at least two authors on the subject (a book and an article is fine, if
they are both explored in depth). Simple summaries of the works should be very brief.
Rather, you should develop your own thesis about the salience of these authors’
arguments – based on your analysis of their logic and use of sources, as well as from your
own perspectives stemming from the topics of this course – analysis is absolutely
essential. Topics can answer the prompts provided at the end of the syllabus or answer
another historical question entirely. A very brief (one paragraph) statement of topic is
expected in class on July 16. Late papers lose one letter grade each day that they are late,
and no papers can be accepted after August 2. (30%)
Class Participation and Map Quiz (10%)
All typed work should be submitted in 12 point Times or Times New Roman font; margins
should be 1” (left and right may be 1.25”).
Required Books
Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution.
Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2004.
Ada Ferrer. Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898. Chapel Hill:
UNC Press, 1999.
All *starred readings will be made available as a reader.
Schedule of Classes and Readings (readings due on the day they are listed)
1. Monday, June 25 – Introduction and Indigenous Societies of the Caribbean
Optional reading:
*Sidney Mintz. “Caribbean Nationhood: An Anthropological
Perspective” in Caribbean Transformations (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1989 [1974]), 302-328.
2. Tuesday, June 26 – Early Colonization and the Atlantic Slave Trade
*David Wheat, “Enslaved ‘Angolas’ in Havana’s Baptismal Records,
1590-1600” (tentative)
3. Wednesday, June 27 – Plantation Societies and the Everyday Life of Slavery
Dubois, Avengers: Chapter 1, 2 (pp. 8-59)
*Julius Scott, “This Common Wind” (excerpts)
4. Monday, July 2 – The Haitian Revolution
Dubois, Avengers : Prologue, Chapter 3, skim Chapter 4-12, Chapter 13
Recommended
* Michel-Ralph Trouillot. “An Unthinkable History” in Silencing the
Past: Power and Production in History (Beacon Press, 1995), 70-107.
5. Tuesday, July 3 – Post-Emancipation Societies; Religion in the Caribbean
*Thomas C. Holt. “The Essence of the Contract: The articulation of Race,
Gender, and Political Economy in British Emancipation Policy, 18381866.” In Beyond Slavery Explorations of Race, Labor, and Citizenship in
Postemancipation Societies.Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2000.
*Mimi Sheller, Democracy After Slavery (excerpts)
6. Monday, July 9 – “Second Slavery” and the Sugar Revolution in Cuba and Puerto
Rico
7. Tuesday, July 10 – Independence in the Spanish Caribbean
Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba, pp TBA
8. Wednesday, July 11 - Midterm
9. Monday, July 16 – The U.S. in the Caribbean
*Laura Briggs. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science and U.S.
Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley: UCAL, 2002. (excerpts)
Recommended
Louis Pérez. On Becoming Cuban.
10. Tuesday, July 17 – Interwar Years: Dictatorships, Garvey, and Cultural
Nationalism in the Caribbean
*Richard Turits, Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo
Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History. Stanford: Stanford Press,
2003: Introduction, Chapter 2.
Recommended
Julia Alvárez. In the Time of Butterflies. New York: Penguin, 1994.
Edwidge Danticat, The Farming of the Bones. New York: Soho Press,
1998.
11. Wednesday, July 18 - The Cuban Revolution
*Fidel Castro, “History Will Absolve Me”
12. Monday, July 23 – Independence and Nationalism and the State in the 1960s
Recommended
Alma Guillermeprieto. Dancing With Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution.
New York: Vintage, 2004.
13. Tuesday, July 24 – Film The Harder They Come or Life and Debt
14. Monday, July 30 – The Neoliberal Caribbean and Diasporas
Edwidge Danticat. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Recommended
Jesús Colón. A Puerto Rican in New York. New York: Mainstream
Publishers, 1961.
Bernardo Vega. Memoirs of Bernardo Vega.
Paule Marshall Brown Girl, Brownstones. New York: Chatham, 1959.
Achy Obejas. Memory Mambo. San Francisco: Cleis, 1996.
Piri Thomas. Down These Mean Streets.
Junot Díaz. Drown.
Karen McCarthy Brown. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn.
Berkeley: U. Cal Press, 2001 (1991).
Ana Menéndez. In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd.
15. Wednesday, July 25 – Music, Tourism and Youth Culture: From Soca to Timba
*Deborah Thomas, Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and
the Politics of Culture in Jamaica (excerpts)
*Marc Perry, Los raperos: Rap, Race, and Social Transformation in
Revolutionary Cuba (excerpts)
Recommended
Vincenzo Perna. Timba: The Sound of Cuban Crisis. Burlington, VT:
Ashgate Publishers, 2005.
Dame la Mano (2004)
16. Tuesday, July 31 – Conclusion and Paper Presentations
No reading assignment; papers due at beginning of class
17. Wednesday, August 1 – Final