Sheira Feuerstein
Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Fellow in the Humanities
2006—2007 Forum on Travel
Sheira Feuerstein
English, Theater Arts
Me Mout' Haf Fe Sympat'ise Wid Somewhe: Dialect-Poetry of Ambivolence in the Postcolonial Caribbean Context
The postcolonial era has incited both backlashes against colonial education and attempts at assimilation from the once colonized peoples of the Caribbean. With language and education often at the center of the struggle for identity, Anglophone Caribbean poets write poetry in dialect and in forms that reflect their multiple origins and hybrid identities. In response to the polarization of postcolonial Jamaica, dialect poet Louise Bennett exemplifies 'Ambivolance,' an ambivalence of her own volition, and pride in her complicated and hybrid identity. How did Bennett's use of dialect and form characterize her articulation of Jamaican identity in the wake of its colonization?