This course explores the literature of the Caribbean in its cultural context. Employing literature and literary/cultural theory, the course will vary its focus, covering the English- and/or French-speaking Caribbean; it may emphasize the literary history of the region or take on an interdisciplinary format, encompassing music, film and/or Caribbean cultural studies. The course will include literary texts, oral traditions, and other aspects of popular culture that reflect on: the slave era, legacies of colonialism and postcolonialism, the experience of exile, racial experience and creolization, the culture of tourism, and definitions of ?Caribbeanness.?