Perspectives on Culture and Politics in the French Antilles

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

In these essays, three of which have not previously been published, Celia Britton discusses a variety of texts from the point of view of their engagement with the cultural and political issues that have been prominent in Martinique and Guadeloupe from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. These texts range from the ethnographic writings of Michel Leiris to the novels of Maryse Conde, Joseph Zobel, Ernest Pepin and Edouard Glissant; Glissant’s essays are also considered, as are those of Rene Menil. Thus the question of cultural identity, for example, is central to Glissant’s work but also, from a rather different point of view, to that of Leiris and Menil. Other topics covered include racial difference and the politics of race, in the novels of Conde and Pepin; gender (Conde and Pepin); the impact of globalization and, conversely, the specificity of place (Glissant and Pepin); the legacy of slavery (Conde); and political action (Menil, Glissant, Conde).

Celia Britton is Emeritus Professor of French and Francophone Literature at University College and a Fellow of the British Academy. Earlier in her career she worked on the Nouveau Roman and French cinema. For the past thirty years she has published widely on French Caribbean literature, thought and culture.