From ‘Habitation’ to ‘En-Ville’: the play with European models of space in the French Caribbean novel (Zobel and Chamoiseau)

• Published in: European review (Chichester, England) England), 2005-05, Vol.13 (2), p.271-282
• Main Authors: D'HULST, LIEVEN, DE BLEEKER, LIESBETH
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Geography; Urban areas
• ISSN: 1062-7987; 1474-0575
• DOI: 10.1017/S1062798705000402

We aim to describe the evolution of the representation of space in the Caribbean novel of the 1950s through to the 1990s. Initially, the rural space of the ‘Habitation’ is seen as a token of indigenous identity, mimetically referring to a regionalist and naturalistic model of space. As Zobel, the first author we discuss, hardly questions the relation between the Creole and the French language, he confirms the nationalist model as it was developed by the European romantics, following the triadic structure of language, nation and territory. The second author, Chamoiseau, interprets urban space as a token of hybrid identity. On the one hand, the new city Texaco, refers to urban models as developed in European and Western cultural geography, and thus seems to replace the model of the ‘Habitation’. On the other hand, the new urban space is understood as a displacement of the centre, since it becomes the meeting place of intersecting cultures. Finally, the role of literature as a constructing force of cultural models will be stressed.