Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphael Confiant
Eloge de la créolité /In Praise of Creoleness.
Gallimard, 1993. 2070733238 127 pages.
Softcover volume, measuring approximately 5.75" x 8.25", shows moderate external wear, with mild rubbing at edges. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and bright. Bilingual in French and English.
"Neither Europeans, nor Africans, nor Asians, we proclaim ourselves to be Creoles. For us this will be a state of mind, or, rather, a state of vigilance, or, better still, a sort of mental envelope within which we will build our world, in full awareness of the world." Published in 1989, this hymn to the Creole identity, this lyrical quest "for a more fertile way of thinking, for a more accurate means of expression, and for a more genuine aesthetics," laid the foundations for a poetic art that was very quickly, and brilliantly to produce major works: Raphael Confiant was awarded the Prix Novembre for "Eau de Café" (1991), and Patrick Chamoiseau received the Prix Goncourt for "Texaco" (1992)."