Caribbean and African Literature and Culture

Scholarship on Caribbean and African religious and literary expression examines how communities shaped by slavery, colonization, and displacement have produced distinct spiritual practices, narratives, and cultural identities—with Haiti and its tradition of Vodou serving as a particularly rich site of inquiry. Researchers in this area trace how colonial power structured race and belonging, and how postcolonial writers and practitioners have worked against those structures to assert alternative histories and ways of knowing. Central open questions include how diaspora communities maintain and transform religious practice across borders, and how literature written in Creole, French, or English negotiates the linguistic legacies of empire while reaching for self-definition. The field sits at the intersection of religious studies, literary criticism, and history, making it a crossroads for debates about whose knowledge counts and how culture survives—and changes—under conditions of profound displacement.

Works

103,868

Total citations

69,208

Keywords

HaitiCaribbeanColonialismRaceDiasporaVodou