Elogio della creolità - Éloge de la créolité

by Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphaël Confiant

Edizione bilingue francese / italiano.

"Noi non siamo europei né africani né asiatici, ci dichiariamo creoli. Il nostro sarà un atteggiamento interiore, una vigilanza, meglio ancora, una specie di involucro mentale al cui interno costruiremo il nostro mondo nella piena consapevolezza del mondo. Queste parole non si fondano su una teoria o su principi scientifici. Sono una testimonianza".
La rivendicazione della piena autonomia della cultura creola, diversa e distinta per scelte poetiche e ricerca intellettuale, rappresenta la base e il manifesto per una nuova letteratura, che, proprio con Chamoiseau e Confiant, raccoglie in questi anni importanti riconoscimenti internazionali: Confiant infatti ha vinto il premio "Novembre" con Eau de Café (1991) e Chamoiseau il "Goncourt" con Texaco (1992).

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Read For School, Essays, French Literature, Poetry, Theory

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1993

About the author

Jean Bernabé (1942 in Le Lorrain, Martinique – 12 April 2017 in Fort-De-France, Martinique) was a writer and linguist.

Reviews

[Xander Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick essay on Creolité, the idea here is to integrate old notions of Caribbean(particularly French) ideologies that center on either distancing themselves from other races(Négritude) or from other geopolitical area(Antillanité), by emphasizing the shared collective unity that all regions of multitudinous backgrounds. Linguistic diversity in itself is highlighted as a benefit, not a detriment, to the global understanding of multifaceted societies, and that despite overarching political juggernauts that continue to dominate the discourse on what is or isn’t considered creole, the understanding here is too open the definition wider not by refuting its inconstancy, but despite of it, allowing this collection of various backgrounds and histories to be something worth celebrating on its own. Most people should have this more accepting vision I feel, not just because it’s more modern(there is no one culture anywhere in the world, and if it’s there, it’s totalitarian and repressive), but because it’s more real than any old doctrine of thought that can universalize humanity by rejecting any particular notions for a vague undisclosed “oneness” that doesn’t help anyone out.

[Parlei · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting view of identity formation and notions of mélange/mixedness/miganness. Creolité proposes a diverse selfhood that must be decentralized from geographical boundaries; not a concept, they write, but a vision for how identity can be understood in an age of globalism, transnationalism, and complexity. What is creolité, exactly? "It's the world diffracted but recomposed, a maelstrom of signifieds in a single signifier: a Totality... it ought to be approached as a question to be lived... to enrich oneself of elements besides the answer." They are attempting to bring together diversity as a vision which unites otherwise disparate peoples.

Although this concept has potential, it is couched in frustratingly vague terms and presented in a text that is not so much an essay as it is a prose-poem. The poetic language is Creolité's strength, its difficulty, and ultimately its limitation. While the project of what may be termed "identity aesthetics" has potential, it is scarcely realizable if it is limited to these terms. I'm particularly disturbed by the appendix: "Creoleness claims a full and entire sovereignty of our peoples without, however, identifying with the different ideologies which have supported this claim to date... without denying the differences between our peoples, we would like to say that what unites them is vaster than what opposes them." Supporting a collapsing of categories in the service of a larger umbrella seems like a good idea, but subscribes to "human race over race" ideology. It seems like what ties this text together is a thread of humanism where race no longer matters. This is contradictory: diversity is what unites us, and yet diversity is suppressed in favor of Creoleness as a major category? Perhaps the authors meant to articulate room for expansion within the boundaries of Creoleness, but it certainly wasn't evident in the text.

One final difficulty I had was its ambiguous way of inscribing the political into their vision: "Equality between people cannot be obtained without the freedom of thinking, of writing, and of traveling that goes with it. For us, there are no formal freedoms. All liberties, provided they do not stand in the way of the functioning of society, are good." This final line of the text is so ambiguous that it presupposes a number of privileges that are not automatic. How is freedom being deployed? What does "stand in the way of functioning" society exactly entail? What is "good"? From a humanistic standpoint, which is how creoleness attempts to position itself, it simply cannot answer the very stances it claims.

[David Barrera Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Más creolidad y pensamiento anticolonial antillano, menos faloperos decoloniales USA-lovers (Mignolo, Grosfoguel et. al).

[Diego Arango · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro excelente.

[ale · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing... clearly I have to read more Glissant

[Vivi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written manifesto on the francophone world, the creole as colonised subject, the emergence of a creole language and literature, and cultural formation.

[Cams · Rating 3 out of 5]

j'adore :)

[Kavita · Rating 5 out of 5]

what could i say? it's priceless!

[Mikel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A critical statement of Creoleness, relevant to anyone interested in the postcolonial, Chamoiseau, Glissant, etc.

[Edward Batres · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'etait un manifest incroyable !