Caribbean Studies ISSN: 0008-6533
[email protected] Instituto de Estudios del Caribe Puerto Rico St-Hilaire, Aonghas Creolizing Globalization: Pan-Cultural Identities and Language in Saint Lucia Caribbean Studies, vol. 41, núm. 1, enero-junio, 2013, pp. 3-25 Instituto de Estudios del Caribe San Juan, Puerto Rico Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=39229305001 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative CREOLIZING GLOBALIZATION... 3 CreolizINg Globalization: Pan-Cultural Identities and LanGuaGE IN Saint Lucia Aonghas St-Hilaire ABSTRACT Saint Lucia, like much of the rest of the Caribbean, is a Creole soci- ety. Due to unique historical circumstances, Antillean Creole cultural identity is fluid, fragmentary and multiple. Saint Lucians perceive cultural commonalities between their island, on the one hand, and the Francophone, French Creole-speaking and Anglophone Caribbean and wider world, on the other, and value the different languages of their colonial legacy—French, Kwéyòl and English—both for intan- gible reasons related to local and pan-cultural identities and for the access these languages open up for practical economic and life-chance opportunities. Under the influence of globalization, there is a definite hierarchy in the value-based ordering of these tongues. Saint Lucians hold English in highest esteem; it gives the greatest pay back in terms of socioeconomic mobility on and off the island. Islanders also value French, as a complementary, secondary global language and for com- municative versatility in neighboring, affluent Martinique and in their island’s tourist sector.