University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Publications 2005 Caribbean Literature (Francophone) Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga University of Richmond,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/mlc-faculty-publications Part of the French and Francophone Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kapanga, Kasongo Mulenda. "Caribbean Literature (Francophone)." In Encyclopedia of Literature and Politics: Censorship, Revolution, and Writing, edited by M. Keith Booker, 137-40. Vol. 1. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2005. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Caribbean Literature (Francophone) 137 CARIBBEAN LITERATURE (FRANCOPHONE), or Antillean literature, is the literature in French from Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Haiti. Ex cept in the case of Haiti, this literature developed along three major concepts: negritude, Caribbeanness, and Creoleness. Critics trace its origins to the rise of the negritude movement (in the 1930s), when black students, intellectuals, and artists revolted against France's assimilation policies to adopt an ideology aimed at restor ing black and African values embedded in popular culture. The literary landmark 138 Caribbean Literature (Francophone) was undoubtedly Aime Cesaire's Notebook of a Return to My Native Land ( Cahier d'un retour au pays natal, 1939). Four centuries of slavery and colonization had a debilitating effect on the Antil leans' psyche, fostering the belief that rescue from savagery was possible only through Western culture.