Echoes of Identity: Biblical Narratives and Caribbean Voices

Course Description:

This course explores the concept of diaspora through the study of biblical texts related to exile, migration, and identity in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. It also examines literary and cultural expressions of the Caribbean diaspora, focusing on themes of displacement, cultural hybridity, and resilience.

Learning Objectives:

- Analyze biblical texts ( The Hebrew Bible and New Testament) through the lens of diaspora studies.

- Examine Caribbean diasporic literature and its themes of identity, belonging, and cultural memory.

- Explore theoretical frameworks for understanding diaspora, migration, and cultural adaptation.

- Develop critical thinking and analytical skills through close readings and discussions.

- Apply interdisciplinary approaches to understand diasporic communities' historical, social, and cultural contexts.

Course Outline:

Week 1: Introduction to Diaspora Studies and the Biblical Context

- Introduction to diaspora studies: definitions, theories, and approaches.

- Overview of biblical narratives of exile, migration, and diaspora.

- Reading Excerpts from The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness* by Paul Gilroy

- Excerpts from The Location of Culture by Homi K. Bhabha

-Decolonizing  Biblical Studies:  A View  From  the  Margins by Fernando F Segovia

-Contextual Interpretation and Canonical Narrative toward a Holistic Reading of the  Bible by Aijlon Ferdinand.

Week 2: Hebrew Bible  - Narratives of Migration

- Book of Genesis* (Genesis 12-25, Abraham's journey)

-Book of Exodus* (Exodus 1-15)

- The context of Caribbean migration." Caribbean life in New York City: Sociocultural dimensions , Elsa M. Chaney

- Windrush generation” and “hostile environment”: symbols and lived experiences in Caribbean migration to the UK.  Huon Wardle, and Laura Obermuller.

-Seeing  the Exodus  through  Caribbean Lens  Anna Kasafi

- Genesis 1-2:4a and  Exodus1-15 A Basis for a Theology of Liberation by  Oral Thomas

- Discussion Themes of liberation, migration, and identity.

Week 3: Hebrew Bible  ( Exile)

-the Book of Daniel

-Building on  Sand: Shifting  Readings on Genesis  38 and  Daniel  8Steed V Davidson  excerpt from  Island  Islandness and the Bible

-  the Book of Esther

- Reading Diversity, Difference, and Access to Power in the Diaspora: The Case of the  Book of  Esther by  Steed V Davidson

-Are Vashiti and Esther our Sista?  Two Women as Pradigmatic of  Black Women's Resistance to Slavery

- Discussion: Exilic experiences and resistance.

Week 4: Hebrew Bible  ( Colonialism, Imperialism, forced migration and refugees)

-  the Book of Joshua

- the Book of Jeremiah  

 -Human Rights,  US Foreign  Policy and Haitian Refugees  by G, Loescher and J Scanian

-A Human Rights Tragedy:  The  Cuban and Haitian  Refugee Crises Revealed by TD. Jones

-Gazing  (at) Native  Women  Rahab and Jael in Imperializing and  Postcolonial  Discourses  by Steed V Davidson

-The Imperial End: How Empire Overtakes Refugees in  Jeremiah  by Steed V Davidson

- Discussion of refugees, colonialism, colorism, imperialism and racism.

Week 5: Hebrew Bible (Returning  Home) - 

- the Book of Nehemiah

-  the Book of Ezra

-Ties that Bind: Families, social capital and Caribean  second-generation  return migration by Tracey Reynolds

- Discussion: Themes of return, rebuilding, and community identity.

Week 6: New Testament -( Race and Ethnicity )

- the Gospel of Matthew

-  Acts of the Apostles

-Readings from-  Ethnic  Negotiations: The Function of  Race and Ethnicity in Acts  16  Eric Barreto

-Reading Migration, Racism, and Identity:  The   Caribbean Experience in  Britain   Winston James

- When  Blackness Stings: Africans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants, race and racism in late 20th century  America G.L Jioannetti

-Exotica and the  Ethiopian of Acts 8:26-40:  Toward   A Different  Fablua  Margaret Aymer

Week 7  ( Slavery and Resistance)

         -The Epistle to Ephesians

         -The Epistle  to Philemon

-The Epistle to the  Colossians

-1st Peter

-Silencing of Slaves in Early  and  Jewish Writings by Ronald Charles

-Biblical Resistance Hermeneutics  within the Caribbean Context by Oral  Thomas

-Caribbean Diaspora:  The Inheritance of Slavery: Migration from the Commonwealth  Caribbean by Elizabeth M.Hope Thomas

Discussion: slavery, resistance

Week 8: New Testament  ( Diasporic Texts)

-Pauline Texts

 -Epistle to the Hebrews 

 -Epistle of James

-Epistles of 1 and 2 Peter

-Islands, Borders, and Migration: Reading Paul in Light of the  Crisis in Puerto Rico by Efrain Agosto

-Paul and the  Politics of the  Diaspora by Ronald Charles

-James: Diaspora Rhetoric of a Friend  God  by Margaret Aymer

- Discussion: diaspora perspectives.

Week 9: Caribbean Diaspora - Historical and Cultural Context

- Omeros by Derek Walcott

- Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

-Decolonizing Biblical Studies: A View from the Margins* by Fernando F. Segovia

-Interpreting Beyond  Borders by  Fernando E Segovia

- Discussion  decolonization, colonization,

Week 10: Caribbean Diaspora - Identity,  Creole Representation

- The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon

- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

-Caribbean Creolization: Reflections on the  Cultural Dynamics of Language, literature, and identity by Patrica Murray

- Creolizing Heremunatics: A Caribbean Invitation by  Althea Spencer Miller

- Discussion: Identity, displacement, and cultural memory.

Week 11: Caribbean Diaspora - Memory and Resistance

- Zami: A New Spelling of My Name* by Audre Lorde

- Voodoo Hypothesis* by Canisia Lubrin

- Queen of the Conquered* by Karen Callender

- Life Under the  Sun: Contradictions and  Resistance  In Ecclesiastes by Lydia Hernadez Marcial

 Discussion: Cultural resilience, memory, and strategies of resistance.

Week 12: Caribbean Diaspora - Modern and Speculative Fiction and  the  Bible as  Speculative  Fiction

- The Best of All Possible Worlds* by Karen Lord

- Deviation and Fantasy: On the  Question of  Status  of the  Bible as Fantasy by Hagai Dagan

- In class assignment, Point out the  fantastical elements of  the  Revelation of  John

- Discussion: Speculative fiction and its impact on contemporary Caribbean identity and discuss how the  Bible can be considered fantasy or any other subgenre of speculative fiction.

Week 13: Caribbean Diaspora - Poetry, Culture, and Our Stories

-  Fault Lines by Kendel Hippolyte

- Being Womanish Is Not Bad by Princess O'Nika  Auguste

-Righting Her Story: Caribbean Encounter  the Bible Story by Patrica  Sheerattan Bisnauth

- The  Danger of  A Single  Story  Ted Talk by  Nigerian Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg  

- Discussion of stories in the Caribbean and  the  Biblle, who gets to tell their stories

Week 14: Final Project Presentations

- Project: Students will choose a book in the Bible that deals with diaspora, exile, identity, or migration and compare it to a concept or theme in Caribbean literature and the diaspora. They will present their research and analysis to the class.

Assessment:

- Participation and Class Engagement: 20%

- Weekly Reading Responses: 20%

- Midterm Paper (Comparative Analysis): 30%

- Final Project: 30%

This course structure integrates biblical studies with Caribbean literature and diaspora studies to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of diasporic narratives, identities, and cultural expressions across different historical and geographical contexts.