Students on this program will study Caribbean Literature and culture at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad. The English-speaking Caribbean islands are at the heart of the most exciting 20th-century development in English literature, the rise of poets and novelists from the former colonies of the British Empire. Among the world-renowned authors who have spent their formative years in Trinidad are Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott, the recipient of an honorary degree from Dartmouth, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist V. S. Naipaul 'H92, whose novel, A House for Mr. Biswas, has won Britain's famed Booker Prize. Dartmouth students at St. Augustine will work with the leading authorities on post-colonial literature and culture in two courses for major credit. A third course on Caribbean culture will explore the history, music and festivals of the Caribbean and allow students to meet some of the leading writers. The old dominion capital Port of Spain, not far from the University, is a vital mix of folk tradition and modernism. Literary and cultural studies courses will be supplemented by excursions to the colonial forts, the elegant houses of the planters, and other important cultural sites.
Students will live in accommodations on the University of the West Indies campus arranged by the FSP director.
To participate students must have completed all first-year requirements and one English course (other than 2, 3, 5 or 7) with a grade of B or better. (The English course requirement may, in certain circumstances, be waived by the director.) The Department recommends that students should, in addition to theprerequisites listed above, have completed either the English department's Introduction to Postcolonial Literature (English 58), Caribbean Literature (English 67), or the course offered at Dartmouth by the University of the West Indies exchange faculty member in the year prior to the Trinidad FS, or a course deemed equivalent by the director for that year.
Limited to 15 students.
Professor Jonathan Crewe, Director of the Fall 2008 Trinidad FSP.
