Créolité is a literary movement first developed in the 1980s by Martinican writers Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. The trio published Eloge de la créolité (In Praise of Creoleness) in 1989 as a response to the perceived inadequacies of the négritude movement. Créolité, or "creoleness", is a neologism which attempts to describe the cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of the Antilles, and more specifically of the French Caribbean.

Creoleness may also refer to the scientifically meaningful characteristics of creole languages, the subject of study in creolistics.

History[link]

Créolité can perhaps best be described in contrast with the movement that preceded it, la négritude, a literary movement spearheaded by Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Damas in the 1930s. The Négritude writers sought to define themselves in terms of their cultural, racial, and historical ties to the African continent as a rejection of French colonial political hegemony and of French cultural, intellectual, racial, and moral domination. Césaire and his contemporaries considered the shared black heritage of members of the African diaspora as a source of power and self-worth for those oppressed by physical and psychological violence of the colonial project.

Later writers such as Martinican Edouard Glissant came to reject the monolithic view of "blackness" portrayed in the négritude movement. In the early 1980s, Glissant advanced the concept of Antillanité ("Caribbeanness") which claimed that Caribbean identity could not be described solely in terms of African descent. Caribbean identity came not only from the heritage of ex-slaves, but was equally influenced by indigenous Caribbeans, European colonialists, East Indian and Chinese coolies (indentured servants). Glissant and adherents to the subsequent créolité movement (called créolistes) stress the unique historical and cultural roots of the Caribbean region while still rejecting French dominance in the French Caribbean.

The authors of Eloge de la créolité describe créolité as "an annihilation of false universality, of monolinguism, and of purity." (La créolité est une annihilation de la fausse universalité, du monolinguisme et de la pureté). In particular, the créolité movement seeks to reverse the dominance of French as the language of culture and literature in the French Caribbean. Instead it valorizes the use of Antillean Creole in literary, cultural, and academic contexts. Indeed, many of the créolistes publish their novels in both Creole and French.

Bibliography[link]

• Bernabé, Jean, Patrick Chamoiseau & Raphaël Confiant (1993).Éloge de la créolité Paris: Gallimard. p. 28.
• Ormerod, Beverley (1998), "The Martinican concept of "creoleness": A multiracial redefinition of culture", Mots Pluriels, http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP798bo.html .
• Wittmann, Henri (1999). "Prototype as a typological yardstick to creoleness." The Creolist Archives Papers On-line, Stockholms Universitet.[1]

See also[link]

• Homi Bhabha
• mulatto
• René Ménil

Raphaël Confiant

Raphaël Confiant (born January 25, 1951) is a Martinican writer known for his literary commitment towards Creole literature.

Biography[link]

Raphaël Confiant was born in 1951 in Le Lorrain, Martinique. He studied English and Political Science at the University of Aix-Marseille. During the 1970s, Confiant became a militant proponent of use of the Creole language and later worked with Jean Bernabé and Patrick Chamoiseau to create the créolité movement. The three authors co-authored the seminal text of the créolité movement, Eloge de la créolité (In Praise of Creoleness, 1989), in addition to other theoretical texts. The créolité movement is often characterized as a reaction to the Négritude movement, which emphasized the African origins of the Antillean people. The créolité movement, on the other hand, emphasizes the diversity of Antillean ancestry and cultural heritage, which includes Chinese, Indian, and European influences, among others. The movement seeks to understand the diverse identities and histories of the people of the Antilles through the lens of literature and language and eschews the universal in favor of a diverse view of language and identity.

Confiant is a well-known writer in both Creole and French and is currently a lecturer at the University of the French West Indies and Guiana (UAG).

After publishing his first novels in Creole and suffering very poor sales, Confiant took another approach in 1988 by publishing his first French-language novel, Le Nègre et l'Amiral, set in Martinique during World War II. The novel was welcomed by the French literary crowd as a new voice in French-language literature. Narrowly missing the Goncourt Prize in 1991 with his second French novel, Eau de Café, Confiant has ever since continued writing in French, even translating his first Creole-language novels. The themes of his last novels seem to be dictated by the anniversaries of French West Indian events like the 1902 Mount Pelée eruption (with Nuée Ardente, published in 2002) or the 1854 arrival of East-Indian indentured servants (La Panse du Chacal, 2004).

Bibliography[link]

• In Creole:
  • Jik dèyè do Bondyé, short stories, 1979
  • Jou Baré, poems, 1981
  • Bitako-a, novel, 1985
  • Kòd Yanm, novel, 1986
  • Marisosé, novel, 1987
  • Dictionnaires des titim et sirandanes, 1997
• In French:
  • Le Nègre et l'Amiral, novel, 1988, Prix Antigone
  • Eloge de la créolité, essay, 1989 (with Jean Bernabé and Patrick Chamoiseau)
  • Lettres créoles: tracées antillaises et continentales de la littérature (1635-1975), essay, 1991
  • Eau de Café, novel 1991, Prix Novembre
  • Ravines du devant-jour, narration, 1993, Prix Casa de las Americas
  • Commandeur du sucre, narration, 1993
  • Aimé Césaire, une traversée paradoxale du siècle, essay, 1993
  • L'Allée des Soupirs, novel, 1994, Prix Carbet
  • Bassin des ouragans, narration, 1994
  • Les maîtres de la parole créole, story, 1995
  • Contes créoles, story, 1995
  • Le Gouverneur des dés, narration, 1995
  • Mamzelle Libellule, novel, 1995
  • La Savane des pétrifications, narration, 1995
  • La Vierge du Grand Retour, novel, 1996
  • La baignoire de Joséphine, narration, 1997
  • Le Meurtre de Samedi-Gloria, novel, 1997, Prix RFO
  • L'archet du colonel, novel, 1998
  • Régisseur du rhum, narration, 1999
  • Le Cahier de Romance, narration, 2000
  • Brin d'amour, novel, 2001
  • Nuée ardente, narration, 2002
  • La Panse du Chacal, novel, 2004
  • Adele et la Pacotillieuse, novel, 2005

References[link]

• "Les principaux courants littéraires antillais." [1] Retrieved July 22, 2005.

• Hazaël-Massieux, Marie-Christine. "Raphaël Confiant." [2] Retrieved July 23, 2005.

External links[link]

• Chains Deep in the Mind

Patrick Chamoiseau
Born	(1953-12-03) December 3, 1953 (age 58) Fort-de-France (Martinique)
Language	French
Genres	novels, essays, tales, film scripts

Patrick Chamoiseau is a French author from Martinique known for his work in the créolité movement.

Biography[link]

Chamoiseau was born on December 3, 1953 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, where he currently resides. After he studied law in Paris he returned to Martinique inspired by Édouard Glissant to take a close interest in Creole culture. Chamoiseau is the author of a historical work on the Antilles under the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte and several non-fiction books which include Éloge de la créolité (In Praise of Creoleness), co-authored with Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. Awarded the Prix Carbet (1990) for Chemins d’enfance.^[1] His novel Texaco was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1992, and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Chamoiseau may also safely be considered as one of the most innovative writers to hit the French literary scene since Louis-Ferdinand Céline. His freeform use of French language — a highly complex yet fluid mixture of constant invention and "creolism" — fuels a poignant and sensuous depiction of Martinique people in particular and humanity at large.

Works[link]

Novels[link]

• Chronique des sept misères (1986)
• Solibo magnifique (1988)
• Antan d'enfance (1990).
• Texaco (1992)
• Chemin d'école (1994). (published in English under the title "School Days")
• L'Esclave vieil homme et le molosse(1997)
• Émerveilles (1998)
• Biblique des derniers gestes (2002)
• À Bout d'enfance (2005)
• Un dimanche au cachot (2007)
• Les Neuf Consciences du malfini (2009)
• L'empreinte à Crusoé (2012)

Antan d'enfance, Chemin d'école and À Bout d'enfance form the autobiographical trilogy: Une enfance Créole.

Plays[link]

• Manman Dlo contre la fée Carabosse (1982)

Films[link]

• l'Exil du roi Behanzin (1994)
• Le Passage du Milieu (2000)
• Biguine (2004)
• Nord Plage (2004)
• Aliker (2007)

Comics[link]

• "Monsieur Coutcha", under the name "Abel", with Tony DELSHAM (one of the first caribbean cartoons, published during the 1970).
• Encyclomerveille d'un tueur 1. L'Orphelin de Cocoyer Grands-Bois (2009)^[2]

Children's literature[link]

• Emerveilles (1998)

Essays[link]

• "Éloge de la créolité" (with Jean Bernabé et Raphaël Confiant) (1989)
• "Lettres créoles. Tracées antillaises et continentales de la littérature" (with Raphaël Confiant) (1991)
• "Martinique" (with V. Renaudeau) (1994)
• "Guyane: Traces-Mémoires du bagne" (1994)
• "Ecrire en pays dominé" (1997)
• "Elmire des sept bonheurs: confidences d'un vieux travailleur de la distillerie Saint-Etienne" (1998)

Awards[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

External links[link]

• Patrick Chamoiseau, biography, bibliography, interview, and links, "île en île", City University of New York, 2002-2003. (French)
• Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info) (French)

More Reading[link]

• Wendy Knepper, Patrick Chamoiseau: A Critical Introduction (2012): [1]

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.tout-monde.com/pdf/2009-DP-PrixCarbet.pdf
2. ^ http://www.editions-delcourt.fr/catalogue/bd/encyclomerveille_d_un_tueur_1_l_orphelin_de_cocoyer_grands_bois

This article about a Caribbean writer, poet or playwright is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This Martinique-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e