This course explores the themes of love, sex, and madness as the lenses through which Caribbean writers and filmmakers have challenged traditional ideas of citizenship, family, gender roles, and political power. What, for example, is the connection between a dictatorship in Haiti and women's sexual desire? How does the figure of 'the mad Creole woman' challenge masculinist constructions of national identity in the early years of independence in Africa? How might the love between a mother and child be read as an act of anti-colonial resistance? We will examine these questions through novels, short stories, and films. Recommended prerequisite: French 204 or equivalent.
Department of African & African American Studies