Abstract
"Amerindian Memory and Native Resistance in Francophone
Caribbean Literature" uncovers the ways in which questions of
indigeneity have shaped Francophone Caribbean literature. I argue
that thinkers, writers, and creators explore indigeneity through
works of fiction, youth literature, ethnographic texts,
petroglyphs, and sculptures. Amerindian figures, whether appearing
in historical accounts or in contemporary renditions, convey a
message of resistance against oppressive groups and project their
memory onto the ensuing generations who will write their story.
Jean Métellus' Anacaona (1986) and Edwidge Danticat's
Anacaona, Golden Flower (2005) illustrate the authors'
interest in fostering the memory of Haiti's first great icon.
Recreating the region's fractured history unavoidably and
necessarily blurs the Amerindian past with that of those who
endured the Middle Passage and were then forced to call the islands
home. I trace the ways in which Caribbean communities have defined
self and other and argue that literary, political, and aesthetic
movements such as Indigénisme, Antillanité,
and Créolité aid in the cultivation of nativity. I
analyze Jacques Roumain's Gouverneurs de la rosée
(1944) along with his Contribution à l'étude de
l'éthnobotanique précolombienne des Grandes Antilles
(1942), Patrick Chamoiseau's Solibo magnifique (1988) and
Raphaël Confiant's Ravines du devant-jour (1993) with
their Éloge de la Créolité (1989) as well as
Édouard Glissant's Discours antillais (1981) and
Maryse Condé's Traversée de la mangrove (1989).
Traces of the Caribbean's pre-conquest and colonial periods play a
decisive role in the memory of the community's past. I examine the
tenuous nature of Guadeloupe's petroglyphs and physical remains in
slave cemeteries, and their mediation via museums and official
observations. The commemoration of clandestine events further
problematizes my discussion of spatial memory, which also includes
the "Cap 110 Mémoire et Fraternité" memorial in
Martinique and M. NourbeSe Philip's Zong! (2008). This
dissertation posits indigeneity as the driving force behind
literary and cultural productions in Francophone Guadeloupe, Haiti,
and Martinique.
Table of Contents
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About this Dissertation
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