The literature of Caribbean writers living in the United States embodies a duality an
awareness of multiple sites of identity as well as conflict of place and space. Easily grouped
with African Americans Caribbean peoples and other immigrants from the African Diaspora make
up the quasi-political face of Black America. But as immigrants from a former colonized
community Caribbean writers carry with them a historical experience that differentiates them
from African Americans - they stand on the border of two spaces. What impact does this duality
have on Caribbean literature written by writers who have left the «home» space for American
soil? As many writers have suggested Caribbean writers are continuously looking back to home
in an attempt to understand who they are and where they belong. This book postulates that it is
through nostalgia or an attempt to renegotiate the past that the Caribbean writer attempts to
reconcile his her duality. Nostalgia can be directly linked to an understanding of and by
extension a critique of American social and political practices as well as an appraisal of
colonial influences in the Caribbean. Thus the discourse of Caribbean writers living in America
operates on different levels: Although Caribbean migratory writers are continuously looking
back to «home» this nostalgia is tied to a reevaluation of American and island consciousness.
The texts discussed in this work are in effect engaged in critical analysis the texts
«perform criticism» of the «home» country and «that man's country» - the United States.
