Chapter 16 The Creolization of Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique) and René Depestre (Haiti): Language and Center-Periphery Relationship
Abstract
The submitted study deals with the P. Chamoiseau's concept of Creoleness (Créolité), which is expressed especially in his essay Éloge de la créolité/In praise of Creoleness (1993).
I specifically examine the notion of the French norm through a comparative study of two novels by René Depestre, Hadriana dans tous mes rêves (1988, Hadriana in all my dreams), Alléluia pour une femme-jardin (1981, Hallelujah for a Woman-Garden), and of two poems Atibon-Legba (1964) and Cap'tain Zombi (1967). Similarly, I present the notion of Créolité/Creoleness in the novels by Patrick Chamoiseau Chronique des sept misères (1986), Solibo Magnique (1988, Solibo Magnificent), Texaco (1992), L'Esclave vieil homme et le molosse (1997, Slave old man).
The two "Creoles" authors introduce the Creole language in their discours which seeks to explore the Orality and to metamorphose the French langage as Artistic expression of their Originality. We would like to compare some important issues with which Chamoiseau and Depestre had tried to cope all their life: interior vision, fundamental orality, updating true memory, tale tellers.