Au carrefour des ruptures : une analyse de certains romans de Gisele Pineau, de Tony Delsham et d'Axel Gauvin

• Main Author: Maunier, Priscilla
• Published: Swansea University 2008
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.752131

This comparative thesis calls into question the inherent negativity of the historical rupture of the former French colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, by means of a literary analysis of nine francophone postcolonial texts by Gisele Pineau, Tony Delsham and Axel Gauvin. Rupture does not only refer to major historical caesurae such as slave deportation, colonisation or departmentalisation. This study contends that these historical ruptures generate other types of rupture in these literary works. By reference to the theoretical writings of Edouard Glissant, the thesis therefore explores the themes of opacity, alienation, exile, filiation and 'oraliture' (literary orality) in relation to the notion of rupture. The first chapter explores opacity as a literary representation of rupture through the portrayal of geographical destruction, familial loss, and physical devastation and violence in Pineau's L'Esperance-Macadam and Gauvin's L'Aime. Chapter Two analyses the notion of the 'drive' in Delsham's Xavier and Gauvin's Train fou. An Antillean term signifying uncontrollable wandering which often leads to madness, the 'drive' is interpreted as a modem phenomenon resulting from Martinique's colonisation and departmentalisation. The third chapter focuses on exile in Pineau's L 'Exil selon Julia and Gauvin's Faims d'enfance as an expression of geographical and linguistic rupture both from and within the native country. Further, rupture also connotes the transition experienced by the young protagonists. Chapter Four considers the concepts of rupture and filiation in Pineau's La Grande Drive des esprits and Delsham's Negropolitains. Filiation is understood in a broader sense as multiple and also illegitimiate, pointing towards a notion of Antillean identity as a rhizome. The final chapter investigates 'oraliture' in Pineau's La Grande Drive des esprits and Delsham's Fanm Dewd, examining the ways in which the oral ruptures the written through the return of key figures and musical instruments associated with traditional tales.