The Other Americans: Michael Dash and the UWI Generation

Abstract

This article engages with the legacy of a generation of scholars working at the University of the West Indies (UWI), principally at Mona, Jamaica, in the late 1960s. Drawing on interviews with some of the scholars, the article argues that the UWI generation was pioneering in its teaching of and research into Caribbean writing in French, and that it is a key element in the evolution of Francophone Postcolonial Studies more generally. Framed by David Scott’s ideas on Caribbean generations, it argues that the UWI generation was from the beginning wary of exclusionary notions of race and culture and, inspired especially by the examples of Haitian literature, and the writings of Edouard Glissant, it developed a particularly sophisticated, enduring scholarly understanding of the region, its peoples, and cultures. The article is a tribute to the UWI generation, and in particular to the late J. Michael Dash.