Maeve McCusker

A Study of the Work of Patrick Chamoiseau

'Une Recontre Multiple'

An important voice from the complex, polyglot society of Martinique, Patrick Chamoiseau is chiefly known for his boldly imaginative 1992 novel Texaco, which won the Prix Goncourt. In the first study of his work in English, Maeve McCusker skillfully examines Chamoiseau in light of his postcolonial background—Martinique, founded on slavery, is now officially a region of France—and focuses on his representation of memory. Her exploration of Chamoiseau’s depiction of the workings of memory solidifies her position as the world authority on the author and serves as an invaluable introduction to his work.

Recovering Memory

Patrick Chamoiseau

Christopher Shorley

Reading Across the Lines

This timely new book skillfully examines the work of the award-winning writer Patrick Chamoiseau. Considered by many as one of the most innovative writers to hit the French literary scene in over 40 years, Chamoiseau made his name with his book Texaco (published in 1992 and winner of the highest literary prize in France, the Prix Goncourt). His books have gone on to sell millions and his work has been translated by a number of academic presses. McCusker sets the author in context, providing a valuable contribution to 'memory studies' by looking at literary representation of memory in Martinique, a society founded on slavery but now politically assimilated to the metropolitan centre, France.

Anthony Soares

The island, because of its supposed isolation, and its apparent small scale, has historically been a privileged site of colonial aggression and acquisitiveness. Yet the island has also been imagined as a uniquely sovereign space, and thus one in which the colonial enterprise can be seen as especially egregious. 'Islandedness' takes on a particular charge in the early twenty-first century, in the supposedly postcolonial period. While contemporary media offer a simulacrum of proximity to others, the reality is that we are ever more distant, inhabiting islands both real and conceptual. Meanwhile migrants from today's 'postcolonial' islands are routinely denied access to the perceived 'mainland'. And, in islands freed from overt colonialism, but often beset by neocolonial forces of domination and control, identities are constructed so as to differentiate insider from outsider - even when the outsider comes from within.This is the first volume devoted explicitly to the postcolonial island, conceived in a broad geographical, historical, and metaphorical sense. Branching across disciplinary parameters (literary studies, anthropology, history, cultural studies), and analyzing a range of cultural forms (literature, dance, print journalism, and television), the volume attempts to focus critically on three areas: the current realities of formerly colonized island nations, the phenomenon of 'foreign' communities living within a dominant host community, and the existence of (local) practices and theoretical perspectives that complement, but are often critical of, prevailing theories of the postcolonial. The islands treated in the volume include Ireland, Montserrat, Martinique, Mauritius, and East Timor, and the collection includes more broadly conceived historical and theoretical essays. The volume should be required reading for scholars working in postcolonial studies, in island studies, and for those working in and across a range of disciplines (literature, cultural studies, anthropology).Contributors: Ralph Crane, Matthew Boyd Goldie, Lyn Innes, Maeve McCusker, Paulo de Medeiros, Burkhard Schnepel, Cornelia Schnepel, Jonathan Skinner, Anthony Soares, Ritu Tyagi, Mark Wehrly

Constructions of Postcolonial Cultural Insularity

Islanded Identities

Janice Carruthers

A majority of the chapters in this book were originally presented as papers at a conference held at Queen's University Belfast in September 2006. The volume explores the oral-written dynamic in the conte français/francophone, focusing on key aspects of the relationship between oral and written forms of the conte. The chapters fall into four broad thematic areas (the oral-written dynamic in early modern France; literary appropriations and transformations; postcolonial contexts; storytelling in contemporary France: linguistic strategies). Within these broad areas, some chapters deal with sources and influences (such as that of written on oral and vice versa), others with the nature of the discourse resulting from an oral-written dynamic (discourse structure, linguistic features etc.), some with the oral-written interface as it affects the definition of genre, others with the role of the 'oral' within the literary or written text (use of storytelling scenarios, the problematics inherent in transcribing/adapting the spoken word etc.). This chronological and methodological range allows us to situate the emergence of the form in socio-cultural and historical terms, and to open up debate around the role of the conte in particular geographical and political contexts: regional, national, European and postcolonial. This book contains contributions in both English and French.

Maeve McCusker

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