Manouchka Poinson's Annotated Bibliography

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THE MIGRATION EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

Chancy,Myriam J.A. Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women.
Rutgers Univ Press: NJ, 1997.

This book attempts to uncover the history of Haitian women's feminism as it arose during the U.S. Occupation. The author considers whether Haitian women merely participate in the construction of a Third World feminist ideology, or instead provide their own unique perspectives. Chancy analyzes literature that interrogates womens social and political stances in Haiti from a feminist perspective.This book contributes to the teaching and scholarship on Haitian women because it raises questions and forces us to rethink the subject position of Haitian women.

Glick-Schiller, Nina and G. Fouron. Long-Distance Nationalism & The Search For Home. Duke University Press: Durham, 2001.

This book combines history, autobiography and ethnography to explore the migration experience of Haitian immigrants to the U.S. Issues that are addressed in this text are gendered aspects of long-distance nationalism, race, nation and belonging in the transmigrant experience and transborder citizenry. What is most apparent in this text are the complicated states in which transmigrants define home. This book is important because it adds to the scholarship on transnationalism.
The book also has pedagocial implications that place the subject at
the center through ethnographic research.

Waters, Mary. Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. Russell Sage: New York, 1999.

This book examines the changing consequences of assimilation, of
how black immigrants are invisible because they are viewed as simply
black, and how these immigrants negotiate race relations in America.
This text provides a historical framework of the legacies that contributed
to this groups identity formations. Lastly, Waters explores the identity
formation of this group that extends to the second generation immigrant children. This book contributes to the scholarship on the identity politics of black immigrant people.

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. Vintage Books: New York, 1994


This fiction book tells the story of Sophie Caco, a young Haitian girl who migrates to New York at the age of twelve to be reunited with her mother. Sophie is haunted by family secrets that are healed only upon her return to the land upon which the evnts occured. The book deals with Sohpie's adjustment to life in the U.S. Also shown is how this character negotiates her identity as Haitian and American.
This book is useful to the teaching of the Haitian migrant experience because it presents a story that encompasses migratory issues such as family separation and unification, and the memory of the past.




Dash, Julie. 1991. "Daughters of the Dust"


This film is about the migration of the Peazant family from Ibo Landing to the mainland. Some of the family members have traveled to the mainland while others have never left Ibo Landing. The film portrays the conflict and differences between those members who have been westernized and those who maintain their African culture. We also see the significance that is put on migrating to the mainland, who migrates and who stays behind. This film contributes to the teaching on migration because it shows how the bond of family is held and also how migration is viewed by different members according to their location within the family.


Davies, Carole Boyce. Black Women, Writing and Identity: Mirations of the Subject. Routledge: New York, 1994.

This book of Black feminist cultural critism explores complex issues such as marginality, gender, gender and the politics of locatoin, cultural crossings, and African women's writing and resistance to domination. Davies reveals the contraditions and constraints that shape Black women's identity. This book is a significant contribution to both the teaching and scholarship about Black women of the African Diaspora because it complicates the impact that migration has on one's identity. This book is very critical for both the teaching and expanding the scholarship on Black women's identity. It offers a culturally specific analysis that centers Black women's experiences.


Glick Schiller, Nina and Georges Fouron. 2001. All In The Family: Gender, Transnational Migration, And The Nation-State. Identity. 7: 539-582.

This article explores the ways in which gender and nation are mutually constituted within the transnational social fields that link homeland and new land. The case study of Haitian transnational connections is used as a catalyst for future investigation. Some of the questions that this article poses are does gender as it is lived across the borders of nation-states sustain gender divisions, hierachies, and inequalities, or do these transnational experiences of gender help build more equitable relations between men and women? This article offers insight on the complicated definitions that are attached to nation and home as it relates to the Haitian transmigrant.
RESOURCES:
AMST 603 Main Page
University of Maryland Homepage

Contact me @ mpoinson(at)umd(dot)edu