Patrick Chamoiseau

Patrick Chamoiseau ( born December 3, 1953 in Fort-de -France, Martinique ) is a French writer. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt for Texaco.

Biography

Patrick Chamoiseau studied in France Legal and Social Economy and worked as a social worker. He devoted himself after his return to the West Indies island of Martinique, the study of the Creole culture. From then on he published plays, novels, short stories ( Antan d' enfance, Chemin - d'école ) and several literary essays ( Eloge de la créolité, Lettres créoles ). In addition to the Prix Goncourt, he received the Prix carbet and in 2002 the Prix Spécial de jury RFO.

Literary work

In his novels Chamoiseau traces the origins of the Creole culture. Under créoles he understands all those inhabitants of the French West Indies who were rinsed by enslavement, deportation, and other circumstances in the course of the colonization of the Caribbean islands on land. With the developed with the participation concept of créolité he tries the inhabitants of this area, former slaves from Africa, Chinese coolies and Arab traders, to enable a separate cultural identity.

In Chronique of sept misères about describes Chamoiseau a cultural identity of everyday life in Martinique: the hard life of djobeurs that have always worked as a goods carrier in the markets of the island and by their skill and creativity, but above all through their orally given Stories and anecdotes are part of the Creole culture of Martinique. The continued integration of the island into the legal system of metropolitan France ( 1946 Martinique an overseas department) and the massive influence of its own economy by France and the European Union displace towards the end of the 20th century increasingly typical features of Creole culture, like that of the djobeurs.

The concept of créolité

In his third novel Texaco Chamoiseau describes the history of the black residents of Martinique, who were oppressed as a former slave or as a runaway and wandering " marrons " of the " Békés ," the white landowners of the island until the 19th century. He describes how the different cultures, the African, European and Asian, are fused together throughout history and today's Creole identity contributed.

In order to realize his concept of créolité with literary agents, Chamoiseau takes the attempt to implement certain features of this West Indian culture in the written form. In this case (high proportion of mythical characters of the Creole world of fairy tales ) the constellations of characters play, the interweaving of Creole words ( from a " national" language internalized Créole ) and in particular the literary concept of " oralité " an important role. The fairytale-like character of the only orally given knowledge of the inhabitants of Martinique, with its many fables and mythical beings (such as the " zombis " wandering undead, or the " mento " old shaman ) should therefore be made clear in the novels Chamoiseaus and the reference produce the Creole culture.

Bibliography

  • Maman Dlo contre la fée Carabosse, play, 1982
  • Chronique of sept misères, novel, 1986
  • Solibo magnifique, novel, 1988
  • Éloge de la créolité ( with Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant ), essay, 1989, bilingual edition Fr. and English by Gallimard in 1993
  • Une Enfance créole I Antan d' enfance, novel with autobiographical touches, 1993, dt daycare, Zebu, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-937663-08-1
  • Lettres créoles: tracées Antillaises et de la littérature continentales: Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane (1635-1975), ( with Raphaël Confiant ), essay, 1991
  • Texaco, novel, 1992, dt: Texaco. A Martinique novel, from the Creole French of Giò Waeckerlin Induni, Piper, Munich; Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-492-03648-1
  • Martinique, essay, 1994
  • Guyane: Traces Mémoires du bagne, essay, 1994
  • Une enfance créole II, Chemin d' école, novel with autobiographical touches, 1994
  • Écrire en pays Dominé, essay, 1997
  • L' Esclave, vieil homme et le molosse, Fairy Tale, 1997
  • Biblique of derniers gestes, novel, 2002, Prix Spécial du Jury RFO
  • Une Enfance créole III, à bout d' enfance, novel with autobiographical touches, 2005
  • Un dimanche au cachot, novel, 2007
  • Quand les murs tombent. L' identité national hors- la- loi? ( with Édouard Glissant ), 2007
  • L' intraitable beauté du monde. Adresse à Barack Obama ( with Édouard Glissant ), 2009, dt letter to Barack Obama. The irrepressible beauty of the world, from the French by Beate Thill, The Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-88423-378-8
  • Les Neuf Consciences you malfini, novel, 2009
  • L' empreinte à Crusoé, Roman, Gallimard 2012

Honors

  • Prince Claus Award 1999
  • Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
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