A short introduction to West Indian Literature. Mary Seacole as an example for Jamaican Female Writers

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 3,0, University of Potsdam (Institut fuer Anglistik), course: Postkoloniale Literatur & Kultur, language: English, abstract: In this work I want to provide a brief overview of the literature development in the West Indies, especially in Jamaica. Therefore I will discuss the language and literature situation in Jamaica and talk about the author Mary Seacole as an example for a female Jamaican writer. A part of my work will be that I discuss the role of women and female characters in Jamaican literature. That is why I decided for Mary Seacole¿s book ¿Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands¿. At the end of this paper I want to give an outlook of Jamaican literature and the situation of black literature in the Caribbean.

The West Indies share the common experience of colonization, displacement, slavery, emancipation and nationalism this particular West Indian experience is part of the West Indian culture and of their arts. Even though slavery was abolished between 100 and 150 years ago, it lives on in the memories of the inhabitants of the Caribbean islands.

The experience of slavery led to cynicism and despair as well as to hope and positive thoughts which inspire the West Indian dream of individual freedom and collective independence. Those dreams are shared in the literature of the West Indies. A development of literature on the Caribbean islands first started in the 18th and 19th century. An explosion of it followed in the 1930s and the late 50s. Topics at this time were an anti-colonial perspective and a search for new definitions and values.

However the West Indian literature grew into new dimensions in the late 20th century. Caribbean writers dealt with historical, social and political adjustments on their islands, which were part of their own problems with identity and aesthetics. West Indian literature shows its variety in poetry, prose, fiction and drama. The poetry of the early 70ths was motivated by the Black Power movement and therefore radical and revolutionary. Back then and still nowadays the greatest influence of West Indian literature is the complementary relationship of oral and written traditions of the Caribbean inhabitants.