French vs. Creole Literature in the Caribbean

Last month I attended a professional conference on language studies (ISLS: The International Society of Language Studies) in the Caribbean, and one of the most interesting papers I heard there was titled “The Linguistic Crossroads of French Caribbean Writers.” The speaker, Maria Moreno, pointed out the conflict felt by Caribbean writers (she focused on those from Haiti, Martinique, and Guadaloupe), who were torn between using the native language(s) that they were/are proud of -- in this case Creole -- and the more prestigious and widely known French. Because Creole was considered by the larger world, and even many in those countries themselves, as a patois, a "bastardized" version of French, writers tended to write in French instead. Yet, as Moreno showed, beginning in the 1940s and 1950s, writers such as Maryse Conde began to introduce more words and elements of Creole into their writing, first with explanations and then proudly standing on their own. I learned much from this conference paper about the specifics of literature in these countries (although I had read some of Conde’s work a while ago); I am aware of related conflicts experienced by writers in other parts of the world as well. For example, some African writers have chosen to write in English in order to be more widely read, while others have chosen to write in local languages in order to be accessible to local readers, and in order to help preserve those languages. The same situation exists in some cases in India and elsewhere. There are of course many more social/political/literary aspects of these questions around the world, and there is no one “right” answer for any specific writer or locale. This paper on French Caribbean writers was a good reminder of the ongoing issues.