C. Britton, The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction - Francophone and Oral Literatures

French Literature Reviews - 2026

C. Britton, The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction
Francophone and Oral Literatures

Celia BRITTON, The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction

Liverpool, Liverpool University Press (Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures), 2008, 256 p.
EAN : 9781846311376

ABSTRACT

This book analyses the theme of community in seven French Caribbean novels in relation to the work of the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. The islands' complex history means that community is a central and problematic issue in their literature, and underlies a range of other questions such as political agency, individual and collective subjectivity, attitudes towards the past and the future, and even literary form itself. Britton examines Jacques Roumain's Gouverneurs de la rosée, Édouard Glissant's Le Quatrième Siècle, Simone Schwarz-Bart's Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle, Vincent Placoly's L'eau-de-mort guildive, Patrick Chamoiseau's Texaco, Daniel Maximin's L'Île et une nuit and Maryse Condé's Desirada.

BIOGRAPHY

Celia Britton is Professor of French at University College London.

The novels examined in this study belong to the rich tradition of Caribbean literature in French, a body of writing shaped by the complex historical experiences of the region. Authors from Martinique, Guadeloupe and Haiti have long engaged with questions of collective identity, historical memory and political agency. Within this intellectual landscape, the concept of community carries particular weight, intersecting with debates on postcolonial subjectivity and the relationship between the individual and the social whole. Readers interested in Caribbean literature and postcolonial studies may find this work relevant.

The book analyses the theme of community in seven French Caribbean novels in relation to the work of the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. The texts discussed include major works such as Jacques Roumain's Gouverneurs de la rosée, Édouard Glissant's Le Quatrième Siècle, Simone Schwarz-Bart's Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle, Vincent Placoly's L'eau-de-mort guildive, Patrick Chamoiseau's Texaco, Daniel Maximin's L'Île et une nuit, and Maryse Condé's Desirada. The islands' complex history means that community is a central and problematic issue in their literature, and underlies a range of other questions such as political agency, individual and collective subjectivity, attitudes towards the past and the future, and even literary form itself.