Caribbean Literature

Question 1

This Cuban novelist and musicologist wrote “An Explosion in the Cathedral” on the impacts on the French Revolution in the Caribbean and “The Kingdom of this World” following the Haitian Revolution. He was the first major practitioner of magical realism and was politically hard left.

Answer 1

Alejo Carpentier

Question 2

This most famous Dominican-Republic author wrote about the Trujillo-era immigrant to America in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He is an advocate for undocumented immigrant rights.

Answer 2

Junot Diaz

Question 3

This Cuban poet of Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) died in battle against the Spanish. One of his poems was adapted into the grand revolutionary song Guantanamera.

Answer 3

Jose Marti

Question 4

This Trinidadian author of In a Free State, which features two English tourists Linda and Bobby travelling through an African country and the short story collection Miguel Street also wrote about the Indian merchant Salim as he watches his small African town grow into a metropolis in A Bend in the River.

Answer 4

V.S. Naipaul

Question 5

Novel by V.S. Naipaul which describes Mohun’s struggle to create an authentic identity in the form of a building while he and his wife are members of the communal and overbearing Tulsi family.

Answer 5

A House for Mr. Biswas

Question 6

Dominica author of Wide Sargasso Sea, in which Antoinette Cosway eventually becomes the mad woman Bertha from Jane Eyre.

Answer 6

Jean Rhys

Question 7

St. Lucian poet of the epic recreation of the Illiad and the Odyssey tackling Native American issues called “Omeros” as well as the play Dream on Monkey Mountain in which Makak dreams of becoming a spiritual leader. He also wrote the poem “A Far Cry from Africa” in which the narrator struggles between choosing a colonial or tribal way of life.

Answer 7

Derek Walcott