Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 19:52:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Lisa McNee <lm23-AT-qsilver.queensu.ca> Subject: Re: Glissant, Deleuze and Guattari II This is great--thanks for sharing these citations and ideas. It's wonderful to have an exchange about the ideas that are provoking me right now (and I mean that just as it sounds--Glissant has been provoking me lately). Lisa On Tue, 7 Apr 1998, Keith Alan Sprouse wrote: > At 11:14 AM 4/7/98 -0400, Lisa wrote: > >Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the D & G connection to Glissant. I'd > >appreciate it if you could give me the full citation of your article so I > >can read it--the quotes you gave us in your earlier posting are > >thought-provoking. > > Thanks for your kind words. The full citation is: > > Sprouse, Keith Alan. "Chaos and Rhizome: Introduction to a Caribbean > Poetics." In _The History of Caribbean Literature. Vol. 3: Cross-Cultural > Studies_. Ed. A. James Arnold. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1997. 79-86. > > The article folowing mine, written by Roman de la Campa, is excellent and > quite worth the read. His contribution is much longer and situates > Benitez-Rojo and Glissant within a wider framework. Benitez-Rojo himself > also wrote a piece on Carnival that appears in again in his latest edition > of _The Repeating Island_. > > >I've been very interested in particularly this angle on > >global creoleness. I'm not convinced by Glissant's arguments, not just > >because he writes in French, but also because he has never defended Creole > >(unlike Daniel Boukman, among others) as more than an abstract concept. > >The language itself has not received his support. As far as I know, he has > >consistently said that contemporary Creole really is a "bastard" language, > >(ok, this is a little polemical--he didn't put it that way, but it comes > >down to that, in my opinion) as it has lost the sophistication of the > >Creole of pre-WWII Martinique. > > I don't think your characterization is too harsh here. In general, his line > of reasoning is that creole failed to adapt to post-Emancipation needs, just > as the barter system that grew out of the plantation economy couldn't adapt > to the new situation -- it all falls into the argument he makes in _Le > discours antillais_ that there is a direct historical, sociological, and > cultural link between dispossession, establishment of the plantation economy > and its transformation into a monocultural barter economy (with its > dependence on external control), then stagnation or "non-production." This > plays out, for him, in the adoption of external (read imperial or colonial) > models or techonolgies being adopted for internal use -- assimilation. > > I also think it's interesting to situate his view on creole within the wider > francophone Caribbean context, from the creolistes (who tend to be dogmatic > about exactly who gets to be "creole"), Conde (who argues against this very > dogmatism), Bebel-Gisler (who argues strongly for an acceptance of popular > culture and creole in _Leonora: l'histoire enfouie de la Guadeloupe_), and > so on. I taught a course in Comparative Caribbean last semester where we > read Glissant's _Caribbean Discourse_, Maximan's _Lone Sun_, and > Bebel-Gisler's _Leonora_ expressly looking at the question of creole > language (as well as the uses of folktales and folklore). > > >Perhaps I should say that I take issue with these kinds of points because > >Glissant is so important as a thinker. > > I couldn't agree more. > > Keith > > ____________________________________________________ > > Keith Alan Sprouse e-mail: kas3f-AT-virginia.edu > New World Studies office: 804.924.4626 > Department of French fax: 804.924.7157 > University of Virginia home: 804.243.4306 > Charlottesville, VA 22903 http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kas3f > > > > --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- > --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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