Children and Youth in Caribbean Politica

In this course, we will survey the many instances in which the bodies of children and teenagers have served as colonial tropes advancing mainstream depictions of Caribbean identities as feeble, dependent, and disabled; hints of hope amidst a narrative of disaster; and/or spaces for power negotiation in the contemporary Caribbean and its diaspora. Starting with some historical context from the 19th century, the course will primarily focus on the 20th- and 21st-century Hispanic Caribbean and Haiti by engaging with national formations, revolutions, and catastrophism. Among the questions to explore are: How have children and youth’s bodies been weaponized within Caribbean politics by diverse discourses, agents, and media? What roles have they played in diaspora and migration struggles faced by U.S. Latinx communities? How have they been used to either perpetuate or destabilize capitalism and totalitarianism? An array of diverse materials will include literature and visual arts (film, photography, painting) featuring infant/teen-like representations of the Caribbean and its diasporic communities through traditions such as the Puerto Rican baquiné, the Cuban pionero, the Dominican rayano children, and the restavek children in Haiti, among many others. In order to enhance students’ awareness of the impact of the different media at play, the course will also inquire into how diverse artifacts and medium’s infrastructures condition our relationship with these Caribbean bodies both as a trope and a material reality. This course will also foster a workshop on children/teens’s literature, accompanied by a community open house for students to share their works with migrant Caribbean and Latino/a children and youth. This course will also foster a workshop on children/teens’s literature, accompanied by a community open house for students to share their works with migrant Caribbean and Latino/a children and youth.