Blacks in literature

This study questions the representation of the "black subject" in Alejo Carpentier's ¡Ecue Yamba O! (1933) and Jacques Roumain's Gouverneurs de la rosee (1944), in order to discuss the mechanisms of inclusion and/or "cooptation" employed by the liberal-marxist elite in their nationalist/anticolonial efforts. During the time period in which these two works were written, the ideological, economic and political interventionism of the United States inspired various movements or artistic resistence against "yankee" power in the Caribbean. My study shows how Carpentier and Roumain incorporate the "black subject" in their narratives tin order to generate a national identity to be used as an weapon against U.S. influence in their countries. I also analyze how the characterizations of these "black subjects" in ¡Ecue Yamba O! and Gouverneurs de la rosee, function within the Cuban and Haitian nationalist ideologies of the time period.