University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2001 The development of literary blackness in the Dominican Republic Dawn F. Stinchcomb University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Stinchcomb, Dawn F., "The development of literary blackness in the Dominican Republic. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2001. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/6440 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Dawn F. Stinchcomb entitled "The development of literary blackness in the Dominican Republic." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Modern Foreign Languages. Michael Handelsman, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Oscar Rivera-Rodas, Carolyn R. Hodges, LaVinia Jennings Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Dawn Stinchcomb entitled, "The Development of Literary Blackness in the Dominican Republic." I have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Modem Foreign Languages. ~4JCI2---7~ Michael Handelsman, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Oscar Rivera-Rodas Accepted for the Council: The Development of Literary Blackness in the Dominican Republic A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dawn F. Stinchcomb August 2001 Copyright © 2001 By Dawn F. Stinchcomb All rights reserved. 11 Acknowledgements The author wishes to express her sincerest gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Michael Handelsman for his direction during all the stages of her personal and professional development and for his friendship and advice during the past two years of her scholarly research. The author also wishes to thank the other members of her dissertation committee: Dr. Carolyn Hodges, Dr. La Vinia Jennings, and Dr. Oscar Rivera-Rodas, without whose patience, selflessness, and encouragement this work would not have been completed. The author is grateful to the family of W. K. McClure for the fellowship that provided two consecutive summers (1999, 2000) of financial support that funded the research in New York and Santo Domingo. In addition, the author wishes to express gratitude to Dr. Silvio Torres-Saillant of the Dominican Studies Institute of CUNY who permitted use of the facilities to initiate this research, to Sara Aponte who assisted in the research, and to Carol Simpson who provided lodging during her stay in New York City. Also, a note of thanks is extended to the Scholarly Activities Research Incentive Fund of the University of Tennessee, which provided additional financial support for research and travel during the summer of 2000. The Southern Regional Education Board and the Compact for Diversity for the Dissertation Year Fellowship were instrumental in enabling the author to complete her dissertation in a timely fashion. lll The author is deeply indebted to her friends, family, and students whose prayers, emotional support, and positive thoughts brought this endeavour to its fruition. A very special thanks is offered to Lori Celaya and Rossy Toledo who volunteered their time to proof read, and to Mrs. Hattie Bell, Mrs. Trannie Abboushi, to her grandmother, the late Mrs. Teresa James, and to the many other mentors in the author's life who believed in her talents and motivated her to follow the path to which fate has had her assigned. iv Abstract The concept of Dominican racial identity presents a problem in the investigation of Afro-Dominican literature. While Whiteness may be the cultural and physical standard for the Dominican, people of African descent have always been the majority in the Dominican Republic. This demographic and historical reality helps explain why Afro-Dominican literature has evolved despite efforts to erase their African ancestors from official history. Nineteenth-century Dominican literature forged the definition of Dominicanness that is still accepted today. By establishing the native Indian woman as the mother of Dominican identity, the nation's foundational writers gave darker Dominicans a racial background that replaced their African, and therefore, "inferior" past. Consequently, much of contemporary Dominican culture and history reflect the nineteenth century's literary campaign of denial. Although the twentieth century began with a European fascination with all things Black, a literature that was exploitative and racist emerged, reducing the complexity of an entire Diaspora to a few simplistic and stereotypical symbols. This poetry known as poesfa negroide evolved in three stages that ranged from the most superficial and exploitative representations of Black culture (i.e.; Haitian), to a protest against the oppression of the Black, and ultimately, to an idealization of the mulatto woman or trigueiia as being representative of Dominican culture. Although poes{a negroide is sometimes mistakenly V understood to be Afro-Dominican literature, the negroide poets did not consider themselves to be Afro-Dominicans nor did they ever think in terms of an Afro­ Dominican literature. Literary expression is as varied as the ethnicity of its authors, and Dominican literature written by people of African descent is an integral part of traditional Dominican literature characterized by a common language and the common goal of defining Dominican identity. Unfortunately, literature that appropriates Blackness remains on the margins of canonical literature because its themes challenge an official history of distortion that continues to be the basis of Dominicanness. This dissertation argues that all traditional expressions of a Dominican discourse of national identity reveal an inherent tension that requires new readings consistent with the Dominican Republic's multicultural and multiracial heritage. Vl Table of Contents Introduction "Blackness, Dominicanness, and National Identity Politics" Dominican Poetry and its Colonial Legacy ......................................... 8 The Modern Construction of Dominican Identity ................................. 14 Rationale for this Dissertation ........................................................ 19 Theoretical Approach ................................................................. 35 Chapter One "Corroborating the Rhetoric: The Issues of Race, Color, and Culture in Nineteenth Century Dominican Literature" Dominicanness and the Anti-Black Sentiment. ................................... 39 The White Flight. ..................................................................... 43 The Haitian Invasion and Occupation ............................................. .45 Enriquillo and Dominican Identity .................................................. 49 The Dominican "Social Race" ...................................................... 57 "Black Behind the Ear" ............................................................... 64 Chapter Two ''The Black as Subject in Dominican Literature of the Early Twentieth Century" European Literary Influences ........................................................... 71 Poesfa negroide ........ ................................................................... 72 Vll Manuel del Cabral. ....................................................................... 75 Ruben Suro ................................................................................ 80 Tomas Hernandez Franco ............................................................... 84 Negrista Literature ....................................................................... 89 Pedro Mir .................................................................................. 90 Ramon Marrero Aristy ................................................................... 92 Chapter Three "Haitians, Cocolos and African Americans: The Authors of Contemporary Afro-Dominican Literature" Juan Sanchez Lamouth ................................................................. 110 Jacques Viau Renuad ................................................................... 128 Norberto James Rawlings ............................................................... 134 Conclusion ............................................................................... 138 Chapter Four "The Afro-Dominican Author Since 1961: Aida Cartagena Portalatin, Blas Jimenez and Afro-Dominican Identity" The Afro-Dominican Woman Writer ................................................... 143 Afda Cartagena Portalatfn ............................................................... 145 Tablero .................................................................................... 150 Blas