Reading the French Caribbean : From the Postmodern to the Postcolonial (1981–2025)

‘A true Caribbeanist, James Arnold has long been a vital critical presence. These essays bear testimony to a remarkable career and to the hallmarks of Arnold’s scholarship: its extraordinary erudition; and the subtle but determined anticolonialism that motivates the work, even as it questions the broader thrusts of Postcolonial Theory.’ – Professor Martin Munro, Eminent Scholar and Winthrop-King Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Florida State University

‘Reading the French Caribbean is a thoroughgoing analysis of the history of French Caribbean literature, containing lucid, well-researched analyses of key works. The book summarises the findings of Arnold’s long and successful career examining the history and culture of the French Caribbean, including extensive scholarship on the wide-ranging works of Aimé Césaire. The book provides an excellent resource for students who want to discover this long and rich culture.’ – Professor Jane Hiddleston, Professor of Literatures in French, University of Oxford

In this essay collection, Albert James Arnold reads French Caribbean literature in its historical context, focusing on the competing claims of ethnic groups from the time of slavery to the recent past. The plural society model predominates, with a particular interest in gender difference and societal issues. Terms such as ‘negritude’, ‘créolite’ and the ‘neocolonial’ are explored and challenged, while the influence of such theorists as Edouard Glissant and Frantz Fanon are shown to continue to reverberate into the present. This collection offers insightful readings of the literature of the French Caribbean to a new generation of scholars.