Description
In Poetics of Relation, Glissant turns the concrete particulars of Caribbean reality into a complex, energetic vision of a world in transformation. He sees the Antilles as enduring suffering imposed by history, yet as a place whose unique interactions will one day produce an emerging global consensus. Arguing that the writer alone can tap the unconscious of a people and apprehend its multiform culture to provide forms of memory capable of transcending "nonhistory," Glissant defines his "poetics of relation"-both aesthetic and political-as a transformative mode of history, capable of enunciating and making concrete a French-Caribbean reality with a self-defined past and future. Glissant's notions of identity as constructed in relation and not in isolation are germane not only to discussions of Caribbean creolization but also to our understanding of U.S. multiculturalism. In Glissant's view, we come to see that relation in all its senses-telling, listening, connecting, and the parallel consciousness of self and surroundings-is the key to transforming mentalities and reshaping societies.
This translation of Glissant's work preserves the resonating quality of his prose and makes the richness and ambiguities of his voice accessible to readers in English.
About the Author
Edouard Glissant, CUNY was born in Martinique and studied in France. His calls for decolonization led to Charles de Gaulle banning him from returning to Martinique. When the ban was lifted, he returned to Martinique and founded the Institut Martiniquais d'Etudes and the journal Acoma. Sylvie Glissant, a collaborator with her husband on several books, provides the illustrations for this edition.
Reviews
The most important theoretician from the Caribbean writing today. . . . He is central not only to the burgeoning field of Caribbean studies, but also to the newly flourishing literary scene in the French West Indies." - Judith Graves Miller, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Book Information
ISBN 9780472066292
Author Edouard Glissant
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint The University of Michigan Press
Publisher The University of Michigan Press
Weight(grams) 336g