Imaginaires de la dpartementalisation: les indpendances en miroir

This essay analyses the texts of Glissant and Confiant to explore the consequences of departementalization on the representation of Africa in the Antillean imagination. The patient and methodic exploration of Africa allows Glissant to produce a critical and complex perspective on Africa whereas Confiant, following up on the theorized indifference promoted by Crolit towards Africa, does not distance himself from a stereotypical representation of the continent. The departmentalization of the Antillean imagination, defined here as the assimilation of its discourse by the franco-centric gaze, is a consequence of the 1946 departmentalization of the Antilles.