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Prisons, Ruins, Bodies, and the Extension of Space and Time in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Un dimanche au cachot

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Literary Landscapes of Time
This chapter is in the book Literary Landscapes of Time
Juliane TauchnitzPrisons, Ruins, Bodies, and the Extensionof Space and Time in Patrick Chamoiseau’sUn dimanche au cachotDecolonizing BodiesAt the 1988Festival caraïbe de la Seine Saint-Denis, Jean Bernabé, Patrick Cha-moiseau and Raphaël Confiant praised for the first time their own creoleness inpublic. Even before its official publication at Gallimard one year later, their texthad started to circulate and opened up a fundamental process of cultural re-thinking in the Franco-Caribbean space that can be described in terms of de-tecting its traumatic history, language, and plural society–in terms of thesearch for its own identity. However, initial resonance to the text had been veryrestrained and nearly discouraging1and, over time, the critical voices becamemore strident, accusing the concept ofCréolitéas being essentialist, and euro-centristic, even messianist, and reproaching the authors for their“masculinistrhetoric”2that would reduce women to stereotypical objects or even draw themin a completely“defeminized role”(Arnold 1995: 38), as can be seen by the in-carnation of thefemme-matadortype, a female character with physically andpsychologically masculinized features (Arnold 1995: 23 ff.).The restricted frame of my contribution allows no clarification of whetherthese severe judgements had a direct impact on the textual production of theCréolitéwriters or of what concrete form a possible reaction to the critics couldhave taken. Nevertheless, in recent years, the number of novels that put femalecharacters in another light3or even focus completely on them and their femi-ninity has increased.In this line of Franco-Caribbean novels, the fictional text that I will discusshere–Un dimanche au cachotby Patrick Chamoiseau (A Sunday in the Dungeon,2007b)–exactly takes into account the feminine perspective on the complexityof colonial violence, both in the historical context of the plantation system andJuliane Tauchnitz,Institut Français LeipzigSee Taylor/Chamoiseau/Confiant/Bernabé (1997: 133).Suk (2001: 151); see also Corzani/Hoffmann/Piccione (1998); Collier/Fleischmann (2003);Tauchnitz (2014: chapter 3.2.3).For example Pépin (2010).https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110762273-010
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Juliane TauchnitzPrisons, Ruins, Bodies, and the Extensionof Space and Time in Patrick Chamoiseau’sUn dimanche au cachotDecolonizing BodiesAt the 1988Festival caraïbe de la Seine Saint-Denis, Jean Bernabé, Patrick Cha-moiseau and Raphaël Confiant praised for the first time their own creoleness inpublic. Even before its official publication at Gallimard one year later, their texthad started to circulate and opened up a fundamental process of cultural re-thinking in the Franco-Caribbean space that can be described in terms of de-tecting its traumatic history, language, and plural society–in terms of thesearch for its own identity. However, initial resonance to the text had been veryrestrained and nearly discouraging1and, over time, the critical voices becamemore strident, accusing the concept ofCréolitéas being essentialist, and euro-centristic, even messianist, and reproaching the authors for their“masculinistrhetoric”2that would reduce women to stereotypical objects or even draw themin a completely“defeminized role”(Arnold 1995: 38), as can be seen by the in-carnation of thefemme-matadortype, a female character with physically andpsychologically masculinized features (Arnold 1995: 23 ff.).The restricted frame of my contribution allows no clarification of whetherthese severe judgements had a direct impact on the textual production of theCréolitéwriters or of what concrete form a possible reaction to the critics couldhave taken. Nevertheless, in recent years, the number of novels that put femalecharacters in another light3or even focus completely on them and their femi-ninity has increased.In this line of Franco-Caribbean novels, the fictional text that I will discusshere–Un dimanche au cachotby Patrick Chamoiseau (A Sunday in the Dungeon,2007b)–exactly takes into account the feminine perspective on the complexityof colonial violence, both in the historical context of the plantation system andJuliane Tauchnitz,Institut Français LeipzigSee Taylor/Chamoiseau/Confiant/Bernabé (1997: 133).Suk (2001: 151); see also Corzani/Hoffmann/Piccione (1998); Collier/Fleischmann (2003);Tauchnitz (2014: chapter 3.2.3).For example Pépin (2010).https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110762273-010
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. “Children, Butterflies, and Latin American Literary Landscapes.” Introductional Essay VII
  4. Introduction 1
  5. I Locations and Spatiotemporal Constellations: Lives, Literary Fields
  6. Spatial Dynamics and Colonial Positioning in Nineteenth-Century Spanish- and French-Language Caribbean Literatures 19
  7. Dissolution of Time and Space in Memórias postumas de Brás Cubas 35
  8. Recreating the World of the Cuban Revolution: Geopolitical Imagination and Entangled Spaces in the Graphic Memoir Adiós mi Habana (2017) 49
  9. II Literary Landscapes and Temporalities: Regions and World(s)
  10. Timescapes of the Desert: Multiple Temporalities in Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão 79
  11. Tropical Temporalities: Literary Landscape and Multiple Times in Alejo Carpentier’s Los Pasos Perdidos 99
  12. The Whims of the Climate: Landscapes of Deep Time in Juan José Saer’s Las Nubes 115
  13. III Specters, Ruins, Catastrophes
  14. The Landscape in Ruins 131
  15. Presencing Absence: Ruin as Counter-Monument in Caribbean Literature 143
  16. Prisons, Ruins, Bodies, and the Extension of Space and Time in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Un dimanche au cachot 163
  17. Whirlwinds of Sounds: Rethinking Hurricane Temporalities through Contemporary Poetry from the Lesser Antilles 173
  18. Night-time Mobilities in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema: Spectralities in the 24-hour City and the Case of Burning Night (2019) 189
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110762273-010

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. “Children, Butterflies, and Latin American Literary Landscapes.” Introductional Essay VII
  4. Introduction 1
  5. I Locations and Spatiotemporal Constellations: Lives, Literary Fields
  6. Spatial Dynamics and Colonial Positioning in Nineteenth-Century Spanish- and French-Language Caribbean Literatures 19
  7. Dissolution of Time and Space in Memórias postumas de Brás Cubas 35
  8. Recreating the World of the Cuban Revolution: Geopolitical Imagination and Entangled Spaces in the Graphic Memoir Adiós mi Habana (2017) 49
  9. II Literary Landscapes and Temporalities: Regions and World(s)
  10. Timescapes of the Desert: Multiple Temporalities in Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão 79
  11. Tropical Temporalities: Literary Landscape and Multiple Times in Alejo Carpentier’s Los Pasos Perdidos 99
  12. The Whims of the Climate: Landscapes of Deep Time in Juan José Saer’s Las Nubes 115
  13. III Specters, Ruins, Catastrophes
  14. The Landscape in Ruins 131
  15. Presencing Absence: Ruin as Counter-Monument in Caribbean Literature 143
  16. Prisons, Ruins, Bodies, and the Extension of Space and Time in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Un dimanche au cachot 163
  17. Whirlwinds of Sounds: Rethinking Hurricane Temporalities through Contemporary Poetry from the Lesser Antilles 173
  18. Night-time Mobilities in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema: Spectralities in the 24-hour City and the Case of Burning Night (2019) 189
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