Patrick Chamoiseau

Patrick Chamoiseau
Patrick Chamoiseau (Strasbourg, June 2009)
Born	(1953-12-03) 3 December 1953 Fort-de-France (Martinique)
Language	French
Genre	Novels, essays, tales, film scripts
Notable awards	Prix Goncourt (1992)

Patrick Chamoiseau (born 3 December 1953) is a French author from Martinique known for his work in the créolité movement.

Biography

Chamoiseau was born on 3 December 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. He was awarded the Prix Carbet (1990) for Antan d’enfance. Antan d'enfance, Chemin d'école and À Bout d'enfance form the autobiographical trilogy Une enfance Créole. His novel Texaco was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1992, and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. It has been described as "a masterpiece, the work of a genius, a novel that deserves to be known as much as Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth and Cesaire’s Return to My Native Land."

In 1998, Chamoiseau was honoured with a Prince Claus Award for his contribution to Caribbean society.

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.

Writing style and approach

Masculinity versus femininity

The dynamics and relationship between men and women has been a long-time subject of literature in the Caribbean. The concept of "masculinity" versus "femininity" is a literary theme that is indicative of Caribbean literature. Patrick Chamoiseau, like many other authors from the Caribbean, uses this theme in many of his literary works. However, as there are a larger number of male writer that come out of the Caribbean, this topic of conversation is primarily male driven, and takes the "masculinist" perspective.

Chamoiseau has often been criticized as being a somewhat patriarchal literary figure after having founded the masculinist Créolité movement in the Antilles archipelago. The founding of this movement was intended to bring pride and nationalism to the male Antillean population that had been emasculated for centuries by being barred from holding positions of power and authority by their European colonizers. The practice of slavery can be argued to have had a more detrimental effect on the male slave population than the female slave population, as white slave owners attempting to have sexual affairs with female slaves would often offer them more privileges compared to their male counterparts. However, his literary work in the children's story "Kosto et ses deux enfants" (from Émerveilles) is in stark contrast to his typical patriarchal and masculine nature.

The representation of men in Caribbean literature is typically portrayed in a negative light; however, in Chamoiseau's children's story "Kosto et ses deux enfants", this theme is contrasted by the main male character becoming an upstanding and respectable father figure.

Créolité

A question that many writers from the Caribbean try to answer is: "What does it mean to be Caribbean?" This question is the subject of a search for identity, and the word that Chamoiseau and his colleagues used to answer this question is "Creoleness". Creoleness refers to how different cultures adapt and blend together on islands or isolated areas, which in the case of the Caribbean, refers to the blending of African, Polynesian, and Asian cultures with that of their European colonizers. This idea of Creoleness contrasts the idea of "Americanness" in that it existed prior to America, and that "Americanness" excludes it interaction with the indigenous population.

This relates to Patrick Chamoiseau's writing style in that his choices are purposeful as his overall goal is to express this concept of Creoleness. Creole Folktales is a prime example from his works. The collection itself takes place around the 17th century in the French Antilles and Chamoiseau casts storyteller-narrator and uses creole in order to recreate the tradition of storytelling in the Antilles that was primarily oral. Chamoiseau chooses these aspects to add to his writings as oral and historical accuracy are important in the representation of the Antilles and are crucial in bring awareness to Creoleness.

Bibliography

Books

• Chronique des sept misères (1986). Translated by Linda Coverdale as Chronicle of the Seven Sorrows (University of Nebraska Press, 1999).
• Solibo magnifique (1988). Translated by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokurov as Solibo Magnificent (Pantheon, 1998; Granta, 1999).
• Au temps de l'antan: Contes du pays Martinique (1989). Translated by Linda Coverdale under the titles Creole Folktales (The New Press, 1994) and Strange Words (Granta, 1998).
• Antan d'enfance (1990). Translated by Carol Volk as Childhood (University of Nebraska Press/Granta, 1999).
• Texaco (1992). Translated by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokurov (Pantheon/Granta, 1997).
• Chemin d'école (1994). Translated by Linda Coverdale as School Days (University of Nebraska Press, 1997; Granta, 1998).
• L'Esclave vieil homme et le molosse (1997). Translated by Linda Coverdale as Slave Old Man (The New Press, 2018).
• Elmire des sept bonheurs (1998). Translated by Mark Polizzotti as Seven Dreams of Elmira (Zoland Books, 1999).
• Biblique des derniers gestes (2002)
• À bout d'enfance (2005)
• Un dimanche au cachot (2008), Prix RFO du livre
• Les Neuf Consciences du malfini (2009)
• L'empreinte à Crusoé (2012)
• Frères migrants (2017). Translated by Matthew Amos and Fredrik Rönnbäck as Migrant Brothers (Yale University Press, 2018).

Plays

• Manman Dlo contre la fée Carabosse (1982)

Films

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

Comics

• "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)

Children's literature

• Émerveilles (1998)

Essays

• "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)

Further reading

• Wendy Knepper, Patrick Chamoiseau: A Critical Introduction (2012): [1]
• Rose Réjouis, "Object Lessons: Metaphors of Agency in Walter Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator" and Patrick Chamoiseau's SOLIBO MAGNIFIQUE" (See Academia.edu)

External links

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