The Nexus Between Language and Identity in the Caribbean/Caribbean American Context

This dissertation explores the crucial role of language as it pertains Caribbean/Caribbean American identity. In doing so, I present works produced in Haitian Creole by Haitian writers in Haiti and of the Diaspora as a new literary tradition for both the history of Haitian literature and American literature. I discuss confrontations between culture, nationality and language throughout this project questioning and redefining Haiti's cultural and linguistic identity, and at the same time assessing how these confrontations present themselves within other Caribbean/Caribbean American experiences in literatures and memoirs.