Lecture: 'The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Creolisation, Nativisation and Enlightenment'

Lecture: 'The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Creolisation, Nativisation and Enlightenment'



Peter Roberts, Professor of Creole Linguistics, University of the West Indies-Cave Hill.

Wednesday 5 October 2011


RHB139, Goldsmiths, University of London 16.30-18.30 All welcome


Professor Peter Roberts draws on historical sources to present the roots of Caribbean identity across the Spanish-, French- and English-speaking Caribbean. In assessing the significance of Haiti in the process of creolisation, key questions are raised concerning the visibility of creole language in the literature from the eighteenth century. Foremost among the questions are: How was Creole language both a symbol of identity and a medium of enlightment? What are the meanings of Creole enlightenment?

Peter Roberts is the author of From Oral to Literate Culture (1997) and West Indians and their Language (2007). His most recent monograph, The Roots of Caribbean Identity received the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Memorial Award of Caribbean Scholarship in 2009 and is described as follows: 'The book is original in its conception, perspective and treatment of the languages and identities of the West Indies as a whole. The author makes extensive use of a huge range of multiple and multilingual historical sources to let the voices of the past speak for themselves, and unearths forgotten connections that reveal the interrelatedness of territories and their 'historical saga."