Writings, approximately 1940s-2018

Please Note:

This collection is currently undergoing processing. The Academia series, Events and Engagement series, and Research Materials series are unavailable until approximately June 2026.

Extent:

148 Linear Feet (292 document boxes, one oversize box)

Scope and content:

This series contains Wynter's written works from the 1950s through the 2010s, including essays, conference talks, guest lectures, seminar lectures, book drafts, and other materials. Some of the writings included in this series are: "New Seville: the Conversion Experience of Bartolome de las Casas", "After the New Class: James, les damnes, and the Autonomy of Human Cognition", 1865: A Ballad for a Rebellion, "Lady Nugent's Journal", "We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture" (as the original essay and the later essay collection of the same title), "Jonkonnu in Jamaica", "The Ceremony Must Be Found", Do Not Call Us Negroes: How 'Multicultural' Textbooks Perpetuate Racism, "A New Model as Demonic Model", "After Man, Its Last Word", "The Ceremony Found", "Human Being as Noun?", and many other titles. There are also some drafts of Black Metamorphosis, in various iterations. The Wynter Papers do not include materials related to the writing of her novel The Hills of Hebron or the play Under the Sun; there are a few materials related to the writing of the play Maskarade.

The series is divided into six subseries: Chronological Files; Ceremony Found; On Being Human as Praxis (OBHAP); We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture essay collection (WMLTSDT); New Seville: the Conversion Experience of Bartolome de las Casas; and Works about C.L.R. James. All but the Chronological Files are arranged around a common work or topic. The Chronological Files contain Wynter's works that could not be clearly grouped together, and represents the majority of the series. New Seville contains drafts of multiple works related to Bartolomé de Las Casas as well as materials related to research trips. Works about C.L.R. James contains multiple works related to James over a period of some years. The subseries We Must Learn to Sit Down Together primarily contains materials related to the compilation, editing, and publishing of the essay collection by that name. On Being Human as Praxis contains materials related to Wynter's contributions to the essay collection by that name, edited by Katherine McKittrick. Ceremony Found contains multiple works that appeared to be evolutions of one larger work to which Wynter gave various titles, and the subseries is named after one of the later titles used by Wynter for this larger work.

Throughout her professional writings, Wynter covers a broad range of topics including Jamaican history; Christopher Columbus's voyages to the Americas; African slavery in the Americas and the role of Bartolomé de las Casas; Jonkonnu and Caribbean cultural traditions; Black studies as an academic discipline; Spanish Golden Age theatre; Marxism; feminism; literary criticism; multicultural education and curriculum development; philosophy of human nature, sometimes called ontology; and many other subjects. The subseries New Seville focuses particularly on the life and legacy of Bartolomé de las Casas and his role in the transatlantic slave trade, as well as European colonization of Jamaica and the Americas. The Chronological subseries and WMLTSDT subseries cover a number of these topics in individual works, and the Ceremony Found and OBHAP include writings synthesizing many of these topics and exploring the nature of being human and humanity's evolution. Writers, scholars, and thinkers Wynter wrote about include C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Walter Rodney, George Lamming, Chinua Achebe, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and many others.

The Writings Series includes handwritten drafts; marked and unmarked typescript drafts; handwritten, typed, and printed correspondence; collected research materials, such as newspapers, magazines, and photocopies of published works; teaching materials, including lecture notes, syllabi, and other materials; and notes. Wynter often made notes using a variety of media including sticky notes, notepads of varying sizes, folded sheets of paper, and loose portions of cut paper. She often handwrote drafts and edited them by cutting pages and taping them together in new places, crossing out large sections, or reordering pages.

A timeline of Wynter's writings, lectures, workshops, and other engagements compiled during processing is available here.

Processing information:

When first received by Rubenstein Library, the materials in this series were mixed together with materials from other series, and significant portions were unfoldered. Wynter's original folders were often unmarked, and contents were often not clearly identified as one work or another. Wynter used and revisited the same materials for multiple projects, including for lectures, seminars, regular courses, talks, and published essays. Handwritten materials are often undated, and some dates have been inferred from accompanying research or other materials. This supplemental material has largely been maintained as is in an attempt to preserve any original context. Mixed folders of this type were largely kept within the Writings series, but some small amounts of related materials may also be located in other series.

Some original folders had large numbers on them, of unknown significance; where present, these numbers have been recorded in notes or the original label has been preserved in the new folder.

Sticky notes on original folders were removed, attached to archival paper, and included in the folder. If any information other than just the title of the work was written on the original folder, that portion of the folder was retained and included in the new folder.

Many of these folders include notes in the form of sticky notes and notepads, folded 8.5"x11" sheets (often several together), and loose portions of cut 8.5"x11" paper. Many of these types of notes were held together with paperclips, and were often nested within other groups of notes held with paperclips. While original order and groupings were maintained wherever possible, many paperclips were removed and many small pieces of paper were not held together at all and/or had no apparent order. Researchers must use extra caution when reviewing these materials to ensure materials remain together.

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