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Caribbean Studies, Volume 38, Number 2, July-December 2010, pp. 155-158 (Article) Published by Institute of Caribbean Studies DOI: 10.1353/crb.2010.0071
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douard Glissant, before the Anse Cafard Cap 110 memorial, Martinique. Photo source: Mediapart, France <http://www.mediapart.fr/>.
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natal in 1939, will be an undeniable influence in the minds of the young martinican students of the Lyce during those formative years. The students enthusiasm sparked by meeting this professor, who will come teach then about surrealism, and the Ngritude movement that made Paris flourish towards the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s, is evident and strong. Their philosophy professor is not just a teacher; he is also a poet, a committed communist very involved in the political life of Martinique during the 1940s. This wakening to the consciousness of being black in the world, as the Paris editors of the Revue du Monde Noir had stated in 1930, will add to Glissants preoccupation of thinking the Caribbean, and the people that compose this complex and mixed archipelago. The encounter with Aim Csaire, will definitely mark Glissants thought and writings the rest of his life. As all young martinicans willing to pursue college studies, it was necessary to leave the island for the Metropole. In 1946, Glissant leaves his native island to continue his higher education at the Universit de la Sorbonne in Paris. He obtains a degree in philosophy, and then studies ethnology at the Muse de lHomme. The encounters in 1946 with young Franz Fanon, as well as the Haitian poet Ren Depestre, will be fundamental for his pursuit of a Caribbean archipelic thought that expresses more and more his own perspective and his own lived experiences. Glissant writes continuously. He introduces himself into the literary and intellectual life of Paris during those early years and establishes strong ties with other intellectuals such as: Yves Bonnefoy and Kateb Yacine. His literary creation is steadily marked by his militant reflexions. Opposing the rejection of the Other, Glissant makes an effort to set forth a unique and consistent thought. After his collaboration and intense written and critical work for the review Les Lettres nouvelles, his first poems are published in the Anthologie de la posie nouvelle by Jean Paris. Glissants life changes in 1958, after the publication of his first novel La Lzarde. At age thirty, Glissant receives the Renaudot Award, for this narration that tells the story and trajectory of a group of young anticolonialist martinicans. The poetic style of the narration, as well as the texts narrative modernity, makes way for this award. The readers find in this novel the essential debates in terms of the decolonization struggles in Martinique; one can also find a literary figure that reveals himself to the literary world. In La Lzarde we can see the importance of belonging to a particular place, in this case, the island; we can also read the typical political commitment of the period. Glissant renews the novelistic form, as he introduces a very charged political subject into the thread of the novel. According to Jacques Chessez: For the last three or four years, douard Glissant has revealed himself as one of the most essential voices of the new French poetry. () La Lzarde is not just
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a beautiful book. By publishing it, douard Glissant, the poet, places himself among a small number of writers who for a few years now have transformed the novel, questioning its forms, its profound structures and the very notion of the novel () Glissant has made a beautiful epic of La Lzarde, a poem, that is at the same time a very precise and methodic narration, and a solar song. (La Gazette de Lausanne, 19-30 nov. 1958.) The end of the 1950s is a period of political and ideological commitment for many intellectuals and writers, Glissant is not the exception. He will react actively within the International Circle of Revolutionary Intellectuals. He will find himself in the ranks with Aim Csaire, Breton, Leiris and Memmi. But it is anticolonialism that constitutes Glissants most pressing commitment. He remains very mindful, and participates in literary and cultural debates within the Fdration des tudiants noirs and the Socit africaine de Culture, he also collaborates actively with the review Prsence africaine. It is important to point out that the subject that this author held dearest to his heart, was the decolonization of that French Antilles and in particular the historic, linguistic and cultural specificities of the Antilles. In 1961 Glissant publishes a play, Monsieur Toussaint. In 1964, he rewrites his novel Le Quatrime Sicle. In 1965 he returns to Martinique and creates the Institut Martiniquais dtudes, as well as the human sciences review Acoma. His novels Malemort and La case du commandeur are published in 1975 and 1981 respectively. We must also point out Glissants three mayor essays: LIntention potique 1969, Le Discours antillais 1981, and Potique de la relation 1990. Between 1982 and 1988 Glissant is director of the Courier de lUnesco; he leaves that office to become Distinguished Professor at Louisianna State University. At LSU he is in charge of the Centre des tudes franaises et francophones. In 1995 he becomes Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY). Glissant was also concerned with certain themes from his very first writings. Readers can observe a special interest on behalf of the writer for subjects such as: the re-appropriation of history, orality and writing, problematic conceptions of identity, hybridity, and the construction of the Other through colonial discourse, and the analysis of the problem of language in his critical, theoretical and creative writings (poems, novels, short stories, essays). Glissant uses the term identit-rhizome to talk about Caribbean identity; he borrows this philosophical concept from Deleuze and Guataris philosophical texte Les Mille plateaux. This theory contends that Caribbean identity is not a single rooted identity; it is rather a crossing and mixing of many rootsas seen in the Caribbean mangroves. This multiplicity is representative of the mtissage and crolisation of the Caribbean.
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According to Celia Britton, who studies Glissants work using the postcolonial perspective in her book, douard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory. Strategies of Language and Resistance: Glissant attempts to theorize and to forge in practice a new language use that will be both specific and adequate to the social realities of the Caribbean (Britton, 2). The concept of Antillanit, that Glissant introduced in his essay Le Discours antillais, stands for the solidarity of a multiethnic and multilingual region in which different Croles coexist with English, French, Dutch, and Spanish (Britton, 2).2 In Potique de la relation, Glissant states that Relation is a dynamic, an attitude that does not aim at finding results, but at discovering processes, the dynamics and rhythms that manifest within the marginal, the regional, the incoherent and the heterogeneous. We find in his analysis clear resonances of the critical analysis put forth by Antonio Bentez Rojo in his essay, La isla que se repite. El Caribe y la perspectiva posmoderna. The Caribbean is an example of a phenomenon that is, for Glissant, representative of the global condition, in terms of the profound changes that the peripheries are introducing into the metropolitan centers, inverting the usual situation lived in the colonial period, where the metropolitan centers changed profoundly and beyond repair the peripheries (Britton, 140). Hybridity is a concept that is related to crolisation in Glissants work; this is in the sense that hybridity is the result of a dynamic of multiplicity that characterizes what Glissant called the chaos-monde. In an interview with Frederic Joignot in 2005, for Monde 2, Glissant defined crolisation as follows:
It is a way of transforming in a continuous manner without losing oneself. It is a space where dispersion allows us to come together, where cultural shocks, disharmony, disorder, and interference become creators. It is the creation of an open and inextricable culture that scrambles uniformization by the big media and artistic centrals. It happens in all domains, music, the arts, literature, cinema, culinary arts, at an accelerated speed3
In Paris, Glissant created the Institut du Tout-monde in 2007, destined to promote activities, studies and research that allow the dissemination of the extraordinary diversity of the people from the entire world. His activities hardly stopped until 2010, in 2009 he published Philosophie de la relation. Until the end of his days, douard Glissant was the fervent bard of mtissage and exchange.
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Notes
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There are several excellent sites on Glissants life and work. See: <http://www.edouardglissant.fr> and <http://www.lehman.cuny. edu/ile.en.ile/paroles/glissant.html>. Celia Britton. douard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory. Strategies of Language and Resistance. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999. For Glissant, the crolisation of the world is irreversible. Frdric Joignot. Fvrier 2011. <http://www.lemonde.fr>.
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Les rencontres en 1946 avec le jeune Frantz Fanon, ainsi que le jeune pote hatien Ren Depestre, seront fondamentales pour sa poursuite dune pense caribenne archiplique qui sexprimera de plus en plus partir de sa propre perspective et de ses propres expriences vcues. Glissant crira de manire suivie; il sintroduit alors la vie littraire et intellectuelle de Paris de la fin des annes 1940 et cre des liens damiti trs forts avec dautres intellectuels tels que: Yves Bonnefoy et Kateb Yacine. Sa cration littraire est marque de plus en plus par sa rflexion militante. Sopposant au refus de lAutre, Glissant sefforce pour mettre en relief une pense unique et pressante. Aprs sa collaboration et intense travail dcriture et de critique pour la revue Les Lettres nouvelles, se premiers pomes figurent dans LAnthologie de la posie nouvelle de Jean Paris. La vie de Glissant changera, aprs la publication en 1958 de son premier roman, La Lzarde. lge de trente ans, Glissant reoit le Prix Renaudot, pour ce rcit qui raconte la trajectoire dun groupe de jeunes anticolonialistes martiniquais. Le style potis de ce rcit, ainsi que la modernit narrative du texte lui ont gagn cette renomme. On y trouve les dbats essentiels sur les luttes pour la dcolonisation, et on y trouve aussi une figure littraire qui se rvle au monde littraire. On reconnat dans La Lzarde, lattachement au lieu, lile, aussi bien quun engagement politique typique de cette priode. Glissant renouvelle la forme romanesque, en mme temps quil introduit un sujet politiquement trs charg dans son roman. Daprs le commentaire de Jacques Chessez: Depuis quelques trois ou quatre ans, douard Glissant sest rvl comme lune des voix les plus essentielles de la nouvelle posie franaise. () La Lzarde nest pas quun beau livre. En le publiant, douard Glissant, pote, prend place parmi le petit nombre dcrivains qui depuis quelques annes transforment le roman, remettant en question ses formes, ses structures profondes et la notion mme de roman. () Glissant a fait de La Lzarde une trs belle pope, un pome, qui est en mme temps un rcit trs prcis, mthodique et un chant solaire. (La Gazette de Lausanne, 19-30 nov. 1958.) La fin des annes 1950 est une priode dengagement politique et idologique pour beaucoup dintellectuels et crivains, Glissant nest pas lexception. Il ragira activement au sein du Cercle international des intellectuels rvolutionnaires. Il se trouvera aux rangs avec Aim Csaire, Breton, Leiris et Memmi. Mais cest lanticolonialisme qui constitue lengagement le plus prgnant chez Glissant. Il restera trs attentif, et participera aux dbats littraires et culturels au sein de la Fdration des tudiants noirs et de la Socit africaine de Culture, aussi bien que dans la revue Prsence africaine. Il faut souligner par contre que le sujet que lcrivain tient le plus au cur cest la question de la dcolonisation des Antilles et en particulier la spcificit historique, linguistique et
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culturelle des Antilles. En 1961 paraitra une pice de thtre, Monsieur Toussaint. En 1964, il rcrit son roman Le Quatrime Sicle. En 1965 il rentre en Martinique et cre lInstitut martiniquais dtudes, ainsi que la revue de sciences humaines Acoma. Ses romans Malemort et La case du commandeur seront publis en 1975 et 1981 respectivement. Parmi les essais de Glissant il faut souligner ses trois essais majeurs: LIntention potique de 1969, Le Discours antillais de 1981, et Potique de la relation de 1990. Entre 1982 et 1988 Glissant sera directeur du Courrier de lUnesco; il quittera ce poste pour devenir Distinguished Professor lUniversit de la Louisiane. LSU il dirige le Centre des tudes franaises et francophones. Il raffirmera ce titre partir de 1995 la City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY). Depuis les premiers crits de Glissant, le lecteur constate lintrt de lcrivain pour les thmes de la rappropriation de lhistoire, de lcriture et de loralit, des conceptions problmatiques de lidentit, de lhybridit, et de la construction de lAutre travers un discours colonial, et lanalyse du problme de la langue dans ses crits critiques, thoriques et cratifs (posie, roman, nouvelle, essais). Glissant utilisera le terme identit-rhizome pour parler de lidentit caribenne, empruntant le concept philosophique de rhizome prsent par Deleuze et Guattari dans le texte philosophique Les Mille plateaux.Sa thorie de lidentitrhizome soutient que lidentit Caribenne nest pas une identit racine unique, il sagit plutt du croisement et du mtissage de plusieurs racines, comme on peut bien le constater dans les mangroves Caribennes. Cette multiplicit est reprsentative du mtissage et du phnomne de la crolisation dans la Carabe. Selon Celia Britton, qui analyse luvre de Glissant dune perspective postcoloniale dans son livre: douard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory. Stategies of Language and Resistance,2 Glissant a voulu thoriser et mettre en pratique une nouvelle manire dutiliser la langue qui est spcifique et adapte aux ralits sociales de la Carabe (Britton, 2). Le concept dAntillanit, que Glissant introduit dans son essai Le Discours antillais, reprsente la solidarit dune rgion multiethnique et multilingue dans laquelle diffrents Croles coexistent avec langlais, le franais, le hollandais, et lespagnol (Britton, 2). Dans Potique de la relation, Glissant dit que la Relation est une dynamique, une attitude mme, qui ne vise pas forcement trouver des rsultats, mais dcouvrir les processus, les dynamiques et les rythmes qui se manifestent lintrieur de la marginalit, le rgional, lincohrent, lhtrogne. Nous trouvons dans son analyse des rsonnances des analyses proposes par Antonio Bentez Rojo dans son livre: La isla que se repite. El Caribe y la perspectiva posmoderna. La Carabe est
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un exemple dun phnomne qui est, pour Glissant, reprsentatif de la condition globale, dans laquelle les priphries sont en train de changer profondment les centres mtropolitains, inversant la situation de lpoque coloniale ou ctait le centre qui changeait profondment et irrparablement les priphries (Britton, 14). Le concept dhybridit est rattach chez Glissant celui de crolisation, dans le sens o lhybridit est le rsultat dune dynamique de multiplicit qui caractrise le chaos-monde. Dans un entretien avec Frderic Joignot en 2005, pour Monde 2, Glissant a dfini la crolisation de la manire suivante:
Cest une faon de se transformer de faon continue sans se perdre. Cest un espace o la dispersion permet de se rassembler, ou les chocs de culture, la disharmonie, le dsordre, linterfrence deviennent crateurs. Cest la cration dune culture ouverte et inextricable, qui bouscule luniformisation par les grandes centrales mdiatiques et artistiques. Elle se fait dans tous les domaines, musiques, arts plastiques, littraire, cinma, cuisine, une allure vertigineuse3
Paris, Glissant a cr lInstitut du Tout-monde en 2007, destin promouvoir les activits, les tudes et la recherche qui permettent la diffusion de lextraordinaire diversit des peuples du monde entier. Son activit ne sarrtera guerre jusquen 2010; en 2009 il publiera Philosophie de la relation. Jusqu la fin de ses jours, Glissant a t le chantre fervent du mtissage et de lchange.
Notes
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Il y a quelques excellents sites consultar sur la vie et luvre ddouard Glissant: <http://www.edouardglissant.fr/> et <http:// www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/paroles/glissant.html>. Celia Britton. douard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory. Stategies of Language and Resistance. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999.
Frderic Joignot. Pour lcrivain douard Glissant, la crolisation du monde estirrversible. 3 Fvrier 2011. <http://www.lemonde. fr/>.
Caribbean Studies