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Volume 25, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN: 1368-2679
  • E-ISSN: 1758-9142

Abstract

Through a critical reading of Gisèle Pineau’s (1993) and Raphaël Confiant’s (2005), this article examines the practice of ‘writing back’ to the canon as a privileged mode of Caribbean literary and critical discourse. The study demonstrates that evoking the riotous spirit of carnival performance, Confiant’s novel cannibalizes a historical drama, whose title character crumbles under the cultural, social and real weight of paternal legacy. The film’s protagonist – Victor Hugo’s daughter – famous for her mental health struggles, reappears in Confiant’s novel as a means of encouraging reflection on the paradoxical play of absence and silence, as well as on the limitation and power of language. Confiant further makes deliberately strategic references to Hugo’s first novel – set in the Caribbean – in a bid to appraise the corporeal and cultural exploitation of Caribbean peoples through (neo)-colonial designs. While less straightforward in its ‘writing back’ strategies, Pineau’s novel references Victor Hugo to make a commentary on the intersections of colonialist and masculinist underpinnings of Caribbean cultures, and women’s dislocation within them. The metaphor of madness as a marker of otherness in Pineau’s novel draws attention to the implications of language as a site of conflict.

Résumé

À travers une lecture critique de (1993) de Gisèle Pineau et d’ (2005) de Raphaël Confiant, cet article propose de revenir sur les pratiques d’emprunt textuel et de réécriture comme un mode privilégié du discours littéraire caribéen. Cette étude montre que le roman de Confiant cannibalise un drame historique dont le personnage principal s’écroule sous le poids de l’héritage patriarcal et des attentes d’une société figée dans ses idées quant à la place des femmes. Le protagoniste du film – la fille de Victor Hugo – réapparaît dans le roman de Confiant comme un moyen d’encourager la réflexion sur la limitation et le pouvoir du langage. Confiant fait en outre des références délibérément stratégiques au premier roman d’Hugo – situé dans les Caraïbes – dans le but de critiquer l’exploitation corporelle et culturelle des peuples Caribéens à travers le (néo)-colonialisme. Bien que moins exprès dans ses stratégies de réécriture, le roman de Pineau fait référence à Victor Hugo pour critiquer les intersections des fondements colonialistes et patriarcaux des cultures caribéennes et la dislocation des femmes en leur sein. La métaphore de la folie comme marqueur de l’altérité dans le roman de Pineau attire l’attention sur les implications du langage comme lieu de conflit.

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2022-09-01
2024-09-19
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/content/journals/10.1386/ijfs_00043_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Adèle; Caribbean; intertextuality; literary cannibalism; Victor Hugo; writing back

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