Explore the ways in which Solibo Magnifique can be described as a Creole novel

Résumé du document

Patrick Chamoiseau's ?Solibo Magnifique' can often be described as a Creole novel due to many factors. The most obvious reason may be the fact that Chamoiseau is Creole and it may therefore be more natural for him to write a Creole novel rather than any other type of novel. Besides, Chamoiseau also skillfully uses literary devices, which, when analyzed reveal the work as Creole rather than French. The main literary devices used are theme, use of vocabulary and symbolism. I shall discuss these devices, and show how Chamoiseau carefully constructs a Creole novel as opposed to a French novel by using such literary devices. I believe that the reason for Chamoiseau wrote a Creole novel in an endeavour to actively stop the Creole identity from being washed out and completely submerged by French traditions and culture.

Extraits

[...] Also, to emphasis the Creole nature of this work, Chamoiseau sets Solibo Magnifique in Fort-de-France which is the capital of Martinique. Not only is this where Chamoiseau was born, but this is one of the few colonies which opted to be dependent on France and become a fully-fledged French department. I feel this serves to heighten the fact that Chamoiseau is really trying desperately to make people, his readers, take note of Creole culture and tradition. He does not want the rest of the world to assume that because Martinique is a French department, it has no other culture or tradition bar French ones. [...]

[...] Chamoiseau is trying to preserve his heritage and bridge the gap between the oral and written traditions so that they can both benefit and both grow. Throughout this novel, I feel Chamoiseau is trying to promote Creole as a language and as an identity which should gain world- wide recognition before thousands of people lose their true identity and become French or whatever other nationality by default of their rightful one having been submerged. Bibliography Chamoiseau, P “Solibo Magnifique”, Folio, 1999. [...]

[...] Chamoiseau is trying to capture the art and tradition in story telling through his novel Solibo Magnifique before it dies out. Chamoiseau uses as much Creole as possible when re- enacting story telling sessions for example at vigils and wakes. This adds to authenticity but also shows that if people like Solibo die out, then so too will the stories unless they are somehow preserved, written down. Therefore, in order for both traditions to survive, there has to be a merger; oral recounts must be written down so that they are not forgotten and written literature must be enriched by the oral stories. [...]

[...] But, using an inspector almost gives the claim credibility and may make respectable educated readers sit up and take note that Creole really is a language and more than that it is an identity for many people which will just fade away if nothing is done to preserve it. Thus, I think that using Creole words Chamoiseau is trying to make his novel sound more Martinique than French because he is trying to address a Caribbean problem, the threat of this identity being lost forever. The character of Solibo Magnifique is symbolic. [...]

[...] This attempt to establish Creole as a written language I think can be interpreted as an effort to learn from the oral traditions and transcribe them into writing to ensure that they do not die out. I think it is clear from the way that Oiseau de Cham keeps referring to himself as a “marqueur de paroles” rather than a writer brings this out. Chamoiseau does not see himself as a writer either, he sees himself as preserving the oral stories as they are told but in his pains to do so, he has to write them down. Therefore he needs to use an established written language to convey these stories. [...]