Creolite bites: A conversation with Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphael Confiant, and Jean Bernabe

According to the Creolistes, Negritude banishes one construction of the self, the notion that Antillean identity is constitutively European, only to usher in another, the idea that Antillean identity is essentially African. In 1992, when Texaco originally appeared in France, there was a review in Le londe that talked about the book as being quintessentially French literature. Since most readers think of identity as a single root, they only see the part of the text that reflects their own lives. [...]we need a common space, but above and beyond this, we must promote, cultivate, and express the differences and opacities, the amazing variety of human thought and expression. [...]when Annie Le Brun recently described the three of you as a "demolition team" and spoke of your "spite, where dishonesty, vileness, and idiocy play an equal part," Patrick denounced the "inanity" of "the obscure `poetess"' and "the quivering of her ovaries" as she read Cesaire.