Race, culture, and identity

"In this work, Shireen K. Lewis gives a comprehensive analysis of the literary and theoretical discourse on race, culture, and identity by Francophone and Caribbean writers. Examining a multitude of texts, Lewis traces the move away from the preoccupation with African origins and racial and cultural purity, toward concerns of hybridity and fragmentation in the New World of diasporic space. In addition to exploring how this shift parallels the larger debate around modernism and postmodernism, Lewis argues for the inclusion of Paulette Nardal, and other women, into the canon as significant contributors to the birth of modern black Francophone literature."--Jacket.