Comparative Studies and the Literature of the Caribbean Author(s): Silvia García Sierra and Ileana Sanz Source: Caribbean Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 1-10 Published by: Institute of Caribbean Studies, UPR, Rio Piedras Campus Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25613205 Accessed: 02/09/2010 12:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ics. 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Institute of Caribbean Studies, UPR, Rio Piedras Campus is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Caribbean Studies. http://www.jstor.org Comparative Studies and the Literature of theCaribbean* Silvia Garcia Sierra and Ileana Sanz The critic interested in problems ofmethodology and literarycriti cism is faced with a greater number of obstacles when dealing with Caribbean than with literature, that have literatures a suitable theoryor body of criticism arising from the typological features of their own works. Such are the literatures ofWestern Europe which, on paradigms of value, have been the of one of the major challenges facing Spanish and Caribbean criticism: the attempt to fit works literary they are cause involuntary because American into the models founded and systematic categories of Western criticism. Secure in the "privateer" rights acquired by virtue of having the the first to lay claim to a share of the so-called New World, our for of critic created and European systems thought analysis cultural This reality which came from his own cultural models. been critic never or faced with problems of non-suitability the and theories critical formulae and inadequacy existing in question. the works to do an inventory of Without pretending or these callenges, in the of the difficulties through which criticism context has had to pass, we will call attention to the most colonial found himself between pressing. - How should these literaturesof theCaribbean be identified? By their linguistic affiliation? Francophone, Anglophone? Perhaps language defines their identities? And ifwe accept this approach, how do we include in this body of literature literary productions * rendered in Creole languages? Institute of Caribbean English version prepared by Carolyn Allen, of the West November 1991. Indies, Mona. CARIBBEAN STUDIES, Vol. 26, 1-2, (1993): 1-10 . 1 Studies, University 2 - How Silvia do we analyse Garcia Sierra and genres which Ileana come Sanz of from the substratum morality? - What is the primary function of these literatures? - How do we handle problems of reception in a bilingual and/or diglossic context? - Are Western and suffi of literary analysis adequate methods of these litera of the specificities cient for an understanding tures? - What in their development? determinant is the socio-cultural The metropolitan or the regional? On what premises can we establish parallels between the emitting culture the re and ceiver? Do we hold only to extraliterary principles of a historical and social nature or do we rely on their typological similarities? Ifwe opt for the second alternative, is there us to perhaps a development in literarycriticismwhich allows the typological compare literatures? - How affinities which exist between these context in which in a colonial interpret "influence" but imposed? not is the interliterary relationship spontaneous do we As a positive or negative sign? answers to all these imagine that we can provide of a the subject form could which each, separately, questions, intent is to Our researcher. thesis for a most ambitious doctoral a short in-road into the stimulate thought on these issues and make areas the four language in of three criticism state of current literary and the and the Caribbean: of South America English Spanish, the of the usefulness with a view to establishing French-speaking, and Francophone (The terms Anglophone perspective. comparative to spare us but merely as a convenience are used not for validation, Of course, we don't listing the countries which make up these linguistic areas.) The first to take this route were Spanish Americans, decades works ahead of great of their Caribbean consequence And counterparts. for the understanding so we and three have study of Jos6 Antonio Spanish American literature like that of theCuban, Alfonso the of and Mexican, de Portuondo, Concepto poesia (1944) aria a liter teoria la (1944), to Reyes, El deslinde: Prolegdmenos in this But the real "boom" cite only two representative examples. of literary kind of criticism comes in the 70s, with the contribution Jaime of stature Rama, the of Duque, Mejias studies by critics Angel Comparative Studies and the Literature 3 of the Caribbean Antonio Cornejo Polar, Nelson Osorio, Hugo Achugar and others, restated who mous The the urgent need a scientific to consolidate literary criticism.1 Spanish-American of the criticism of Caribbean panorama In matter. the case of the and autono literature so-called Guadeloupe, Guyana (Martinique, of a search marks the beginning Francophone this decade and Haiti), for their own is another countries of the 70s historiography, which, emphasising the formal values of these texts, is reflected in the appearance of literaryhistories and anthologies which affirm their American and validate identities. and Caribbean We can cite the case of theHistoire de la literature haitienne (1975), by the critics Raphael Berrou and Pradel Pompilus or more recently, La literature des Antilles-Guyane Francaise (1978) by JackCorzani, which have the unquestionable merit of allowing us to see the literature more closely from a Caribbean point of view, which does the imprint of colonial not debar, however, thought in its very the concept of genre and the very periodization Given formulation. to the popu which this criticism proposes, literary forms belonging are of orality, of these countries, like the products lar culture ignored, for this periodization begins in the XIX century with Caribbean literaturewhich iswritten inFrench, the language of the metropole. The richuniverse of theoral traditionwhich fed and still feeds with literature such power the best of contemporary The assessments. these from remains excluded countries, is quite Haiti case of years it has been studied coun from the list of Francophone to the French Antilles. At best we have since particular and is excluded for many independently tries when reference is made come across comparative studies which other contexts in these further afield link Haitian like Canada.2 Certainly it from its sister evolution literature with the historical of Haiti Francophone distinguishes but this does islands, still in these days of French neocolonialism, to have not mean that its literature ceases important similarities with the literaturesof other countries of the region, including not only theFrancophone but theSpanish-speaking as well, and yet, as far as we The know, no such study exists. case of the so-called Anglophone Caribbean are more is even more rare here, than in the specialized a Eurocentric and suffer the of from former, presence spirit equally in the valuation of some of its best productions, which, because they to genres derived from orality, have not been sanctioned by belong uncertain since studies 4 Silvia I am referring criticism. Western Sierra Garcia Ileana and Sanz to those which show new artistic codes as in thecase ofDUB poetrywhich participates in thewritten of conditions in the verbal act through the personal and especially, the poet who reads his poem. Another important limitation in literary criticism from the world of the Anglophone of this elements islands is the undervaluing of some typical as such literature, the Creole and language the autochthonous culture of its texts. I am thinkingofLouis James and his critical work The Islands inBetween (1968), the limitations of which were brought togetherby theBarbadian criticEdward Kamau in the article Brathwaite critics" "Caribbean in Roots.3 published To Brathwaite falls the historical merit of having been one of the criticism first and few to confront Western ment and pass critical judge on and inadequacies. its distortions If we had to do a general evaluation to point out have region, we would character monographic in the of literary criticsm the a primary feature, which in studies these that predominates as almost always appear by countries or by linguistic groups. Though thismay well allow us to delve deeply into the specifics of each national us it moves production, away from the larger objective search which ought to be kept inmind by regional criticism?the for those common elements which allow us to identifywith each other behind the artificial and unreal barriers which exist in our literatures. which we or weaknesses all the limitations Notwithstanding us a satisfactory pan pointed out earlier, a general purview gives toward it as a necessary ifwe understand orama, phase preliminary the different between and mutual understanding self-knowledge with this to break efforts even though major national literatures, balkanized image of the area may not be the central interest of the critics. The situation however, improves in the decade of the 80's, the panorama becomes certainly more encouraging, allowing us to see in the distance the beginnings of a breaking down of these famous studies which put barriers, with an increase in comparative of the pluricultural forward an understanding region, not balkanized, we note in Process So its of but through integrative components. cultural Unity in Caribbean Society: published inMinnesota, United Ideologies and Literature (1983),4 States by a group of researchers and critics who begin with a framework similar to thatof the Spanish Studies and the Literature Comparative of the Caribbean 5 con to the Caribbean of the 40*s, but applied revolve around the necessity of re-evaluat with attention to the specifics ing existing criteria for periodization, of the history, culture and literature of the region; the lack of American criticism text. Their discussions and terms for a satisfactory categories our similarities reflects the need tomeasure suitable which appraisal, not only through but above all, through that such efforts we must make already social and/or historical which is properly characteristics, aesthetic. Among mention of the excellent book Antilia retrouvee (1983) by the critic Jean Claude Bajeux5 who undertakes the comparative of analysis thepoetic works of threegreatCaribbean writers belonging to three different Pal6s linguistic regions: Matos of Puerto Rico Luis MacKay, Aim6 C6saire. a valorizing nature of an ideothematic premise poetry, the writer has selected essential aspects of the work in order to infer from them typological these three writers Starting ?Black of the Jamaican, Claude and the Martinican, with valid for the three areas. generalizations efforts and contributions which create that truly inter-cultural dialogue a distinct artistic image which definition for "Latin American" which allows are happy to see such favourable conditions for We is the only way us to sustain and "Caribbean" to establish a scientific in the artistic and literary realm. The Problem of Methodology It is no secret that both literary method and theory respond, or at least ought to respond, to a determined concept of the world. Up to a decade ago, Spanish-American scarcely literary criticism was a accused of which attacked what the formal being "sociologism" ists called ary work Retamar, a liter that which distinguishes "literariness", meaning from an essay, for example. The Cuban critic Fernandez in his work una Para teoria de la literatura hispanoamericana, problematic. can Alfonso set out by Portuondo assessments ?the phenomenological echoes the ideas on this Mexi Reducing cited among them?, he upholds the notion of Reyes a as social fact dominant feature of the Spanish-American novelistic tradition and underlines its instrumental role in the historical pro cess of the respective nations inwhich "dado el car?cter dependiente, de nuestro precario incumbir funciones histtfrico, a la literatura en las grandes metropolis ?mbito que le han le han solido sido 6 Silvia Garcia Sierra and Ileana Sanz the dependent and precarious ya a aqu?lla" segregadas (given nature of our historical on functions to literature had has take ambit, from which it had already been cut off in the large metropolises).6 It is our belief that although one cannot deny the pertinence of social fact established in our between region today, certain Spanish-American need to be those of the differences and literature Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean. The eminently bilingual or diglossic nature problematic search of the countries for new strategies in these two areas, of communication and the capable of satisfying the exigencies of a linguistically divided audience (met ropolitan and Creole languages) has placed the studyof language, its forms and in current its relationships, literary criticism oral forms, even within in the centre of debates and reflections of the emergence uses the metropoli there. Undoubtedly literary discourse which tan language (be itEnglish or French), ismarking thebeginning of in the region in which studies with a stage for criticism or That is to say, we focus will dominate. linguistic semiological a refunctionalization is believe that in these literatures process a new under way which places social and aesthetic fact on the same hierarchical level, such that along with problems related to the to the takes on issues relating of a history, criticism founding creation of a distinct artistic image for self expression. we these literatures with that of Spanish America, Comparing see that they all retain, as a common feature, this practical function, the in the latter, this functional change which prioritizes although of what some No doubt the emergene is not noticeable. aesthetic a "poetics introduces of orality" have called important modifica to the very nature of the work, level. above all, on the structural tions not only on the linguistic, but in to narrative This applies literature and to poetry in the Anglophone. Francophone introduce new ways which that the narrative processes So we see of telling or omniscient story of a narrator (contar) through the presence formula which organized break with theWestern teller (cuentero), to Cartesian narrative structure of the the internal logic, according in the oral narrative and introduce a norm based on the 'illogical' seeking to reproduce within spurts out in a burst of memory, In the case of poetry, structure of thought. the text, the disjointed the act between boundaries the erased of the oral has the presence in the new the importance and the verbal of writing act, given of presenta poetry, of gesture and the conditions Anglo-Caribbean which Studies and the Literature Comparative of the Caribbean 1 the In these countries, for the poet's performance. tion necessary a very movements has marked and Reggae influence of the Rasta criticism with the confronts evolution which inevitably specific of redefining urgency the boundaries of genre and of restating what literature is in these dependent countrieswhose literaryproducts go beyond the possiblities of analysis offered byWestern criticism. This broadening of the aesthetic function to which we have referred ?contrary tendencies derived to developments in European from theories of art for art's literatures sake? with far from him from the in an Ivory Tower and separating of communicating with his society, presents him with the writer situating possibility for a wider communication, given the signifi In the Spanish feeds his work. cantly popular not world this has with as much phenomenon appeared speaking the phenomenon of interlinguistic force, since, although rivalry possibilities social character which the Spanish language and Creoles exists there as well, these or new not structural modifications confrontations do introduce between of aesthetic proposals form as in the preceeding cases. We find there is a risk in applying to Caribbean literature, the modern ods methods are based These meth from linguistics. signs, with the main objective of the structures and functions of the text. of analysis derived on codes and abstract being the understanding The practice of criticism from this perspective may take two distinct the of each forms: the of text, metalanguage firstly, analysis from its social referent, decontextualized, for the detached which, the boundaries of the literatures of our countries means obscuring and ignoring or undervaluing of literary development national the process of national the weight of social reality in in our countries. This erasirte tends these days? is so popular on models consecrated already by the so-called of course, exclude "cultured" culture, which would, the productions which have not as yet codified their artistic image with their own voice. there is the approach which, Secondly, with beginning highlights A critical selected not, we distinctions ?which a standardization towards these based the semiotic, identifying of our rapprochement method, provided it does run the risk of being cannibalism of the West. Regional formal elements criticism tools of sign and structure, that fix national specificity. literatures not exclude once more in the Caribbean may be based on any if the social element; the victims has already of the cultural provided some 8 answers Silvia Garcia Sierra and lleana to the irruption of new challenges Sanz by this literary presented vanguard. The French Caribbean offers admirable works which have contributed to increasing the tools of criticism throughstudies carried out by the team fromG.E.R.E.C. (Group for Studies and Research into theCreole Space), founded in 1976 at theUniversity on an interdisciplinary Antilles-Guyane, Martinique, around the common desire to understand themeaning in the broadest project centred of "creoleness" sense. Its organ, the review Espace and enriching way to giving and concepts categories, terminology in a systematic contributed literary products Creole has to these new appropriate for studying them scientifically. The Anglophone Caribbean lags behind, although an awareness and of these phenomena the ad equate analysis of themmay have been noted by isolated figures.7 We are convinced that the only way to confront the current chal lenge which faces regional criticism is throughthebreaking of the artificial linguistic and cultural barriers within which we have locked ourselves, literature. The value bean The in a search of comparative line we have taken in our art and our for commonality of the Carib for the literature studies so far brings us to subscribing to methods proposed by comparatism in order to delineate similarities and differences in our American art. Every comparison outlines the individual at the same time thatithelps in locating theanalogies and The ultimate objective of comparatism regularities within processes. of encom a of is#the elaboration literary theory, capable general passing all existing literatures including and especially thosewhich various "centres" have suborndinated them "periph by considering eral". on so based If yesterday sought out analogies comparatism or periph called "influences", (which for literatures in the colonial eral context(s) implied a dangerous subordination), today this sci ence has shifted its object of study to the analysis of indirect contacts, interchange that is to say, contacts (translations, which historiography, occur not relations through direct between writer), but through the existence of a common history and past. It is this kind of contact which and the Czechs Rumanian comparatists called "parallelisms" "typological affinities". And this is why the Studies and Comparative 9 of the Caribbean is important studies of comparative objective theLiterature and for Caribbean Spanish American literature(s),which have developed in different but with a similar historical contexts presence substratum even where of "parallelisms" which it is known the explains that no direct links ever existed between them. This is the case with literaturesof the French, English and Spanish Caribbean which have points of in this way. This initial assertion affinity that can only be explained these which literatures, emerge from a metropolitan explains why more are to other than to the respective similar each plurality, metropolis. Comparatists, pressed tours of the so-called "pheripheral" of reception depths of the problem by the need to define the con literatures, strove to sound the in a context of of "influences" or simple subordination and this is why they maintain dependency the influence which is received of reception, that, in the process from thehegemonic culturedoes not implypassive imitationbut has a creative since character, the subordinate or peripheral culture is selective, recreating only those elements which its tradition is able to assimilate, leaving of This problem aside important peculiarities since this process does is truly foreign to it. in the colonial context has that which influence very of our art for an adequate understanding not occur in the same way between consoli or reception in which does not the "influence" risk of loss of presuppose any identity. In the Caribbean of reception of the Euro context this process in a situation of permanent conflict or chal pean element occurs dated literatures lenge with the metropolitan culture, to the extent that in some cases, the foreign element is not understood as an integral part of the of the country in question. Thus we have the heritage of the English and French Caribbean, where the metropoli tan language is (sometimes) assumed it is not assimi conflictually, culture instance lated critically literature, since a positive sign, as is the case with Hispanic of the Creole languages the weight of subjection by is so strong that linguistic problems in literary as the metropolitan are lived discourse in a dramatic way. This problematic is of tremendous importance ifwe bear inmind that itwil be impossible to speak of "national in these countries consciousness" an integrative not in have succeeded they forgoing capable element of not excluding of its identity. Reception from its cultural then, in the colonial context, pantheon as long as self-image any constitutive is a subject as important 10 and crucial one to have Silvia Garcia Sierra and Ileana Sanz as it is virginal; American criticism echoed it. It is urgent that American is almost the only should aesthetes face these new challenges which modernity imposes on our art, in order to make possible this project of establishing, through a scientific and existence as "other". autonomous criticism, a true artistic image of our Notes 1. 2. Achugar, Hugo: Casa. No. 110. Maximilien: Laroche, et d'Haiti. Quebec 3. Notaspara 1978. Cuba. Brathwaite, literario Edward: un debate la crttica literaria de la mitomorphose. du Jour. Canada. 1970. Essai sobre Le miracle Editions Roots. Editora Casa de las Americas. Process Ileana, Marc Zimmerman: Rodriguez, B.U. 1983. Minnesota. gies and Literature. 5. Bajeux, 7. Jean-Claude: Fernandez Editorial Kamau Habana, sur les Litteratures 1986. Habana. Antilia Roberto: Retamar, Pueblo y Educacion, Brathwaite, 1989. Edward: retrouvie. Para una teoria de (Cuarta dictada in Caribbean CaribSenes. Editions 1984, Habana. Conferencia of Unity Society: Paris, la literatura Ideolo 1983. hispanoamericana. edicion). en la Fac. de Lenguas du (Premio de ensayo) 4. 6. Rev. latinoamericana. Extranjeras.