This course studies the period of postcolonial literary history of the Caribbean and French West Indies literatures through the famous novels of Patrick Chamoiseau (Chemin d’école), Maryse Condé (Célanire cou coupé/), Émile Ollivier (/Mille eaux) and Gisèle Pineau (L’espérance macadam). The narratives of these francophone writers examine the problems of identity of the people born in the Caribbean but who grew up in France, and returned to live in a colonial atmosphere (Haiti, Guadeloupe or Martinique), trying to deal with ideologies of liberation or progress. We will analyse anti-colonial figures (both men and women) and aspects of Creole language in these works of art.

Texts: Patrick Chamoiseau, Chemin d’école, Gallimard/ Folio.

Maryse Condé, Célanire cou coupé/, Paris, Presses Pocket Le livre de Poche.

Émile Ollivier, Mille eaux, Paris Gallimard/ Haute Enfance.

Gisèle Pineau, L’espérance macadam, LGF/ Le Livre de poche.


For consultation

L.S. Senghor, Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française, Paris, PUF. [PQ3899 .S4 1977].

Jack Corzani, La littérature des Antilles Guyane Française, Fort de France, Désormeaux.

[PQ3940.C67 1978].

Cahiers de l'Association internationale des études françaises , n° 55. [ PC2012 .A8]*