Raphaël Confiant (born January 25, 1951) is a Martinican writer known for his literary commitment towards Creole literature.
Life and career Raphaël Confiant was born in Le Lorrain, Martinique. He studied English and political science at the Sciences Po Aix and law at Paul Cézanne University in Aix-en-Provence, France. During the 1970s, Confiant became a militant proponent of use of the Creole language and later worked with Jean Bernabé and Patrick Chamoiseau to create the movement. The three authors co-authored in 1989 the seminal text of the movement, , in addition to other theoretical texts. The movement is often characterized as a reaction to the movement, which emphasized the African origins of the Antillean people. Créolité, on the other hand, emphasizes the diversity of Antillean ancestry and cultural heritage, which includes Chinese, Indian, and European influences, among others. The movement seeks to understand the diverse identities and histories of the people of the Antilles through the lens of literature and language and eschews the universal in favor of a diverse view of language and identity. Confiant is highly critical of Négritude and in 1993, he published a critique of Négritude founder Aimé Césaire called Aimé Césaire: une traversée paradoxale du siècle (Aimé Césaire: a Paradoxical Journey Across the Century).
Confiant is a well-known writer in both Creole and French and was a lecturer at the University of the French West Indies and Guiana (UAG). He served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UAG from 2013 to 2016.
After publishing his first novels in Creole and suffering very poor sales, Confiant took another approach in 1988 by publishing his first French-language novel, , set in Martinique during World War II. The novel was welcomed by the French literary crowd as a new voice in French-language literature. Narrowly missing the Goncourt Prize in 1991 with his second French novel, , Confiant has ever since continued writing in French, even translating his first Creole-language novels. The themes of some of his novels seem to be dictated by the anniversaries of French West Indian events like the 1902 Mount Pelée eruption (with , published in 2002) or the 1854 arrival of East-Indian indentured servants (, 2004).
Bibliography
In Creole Jik dèyè do Bondyé, short stories, 1979 Jou Baré, poems, 1981 Bitako-a, novel, 1985 Kòd Yanm, novel, 1986 Marisosé, novel, 1987 Dictionnaires des titim et sirandanes, 1997
In French Le Nègre et l'Amiral, novel, 1988, Prix Antigone Eloge de la créolité, essay, 1989 (with Jean Bernabé and Patrick Chamoiseau) Lettres créoles: tracées antillaises et continentales de la littérature (1635–1975), essay, 1991 Eau de Café, novel 1991, Prix Novembre Ravines du devant-jour, narration, 1993, Prix Casa de las Americas Commandeur du sucre, narration, 1993 Aimé Césaire, une traversée paradoxale du siècle, essay, 1993 L'Allée des Soupirs, novel, 1994, Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde Bassin des ouragans, narration, 1994 Les maîtres de la parole créole, story, 1995 Contes créoles, story, 1995 Le Gouverneur des dés, narration, 1995 Mamzelle Libellule, novel, 1995. Mamzelle Dragonfly, trans. Linda Coverdale (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1999) La Savane des pétrifications, narration, 1995 La Vierge du Grand Retour, novel, 1996 La baignoire de Joséphine, narration, 1997 Le Meurtre de Samedi-Gloria, novel, 1997, Prix RFO du livre L'archet du colonel, novel, 1998 Régisseur du rhum, narration, 1999 Le Cahier de Romance, narration, 2000 Brin d'amour, novel, 2001 Nuée ardente, narration, 2002 La Panse du Chacal, novel, 2004 Adele et la Pacotillieuse, novel, 2005 Trilogie tropicale, 2006 Nègre marron, 2006 Case à Chine, 2007 Les Ténèbres extérieures, 2008 Black is Black, 2008 Le Chien fou et le Fromager, 2008 L'Hôtel du Bon Plaisir, 2009 La Jarre d'or, 2010 Citoyens au-dessus de tout soupçon, roman policier, 2010 Du rififi chez les fils de la veuve, roman policier, 2012 Rue des Syriens, 2012 Les Saint-Aubert, L'en-allée du siècle 1900-1920, 2012 Bal masqué à Békéland, roman policier, 2013 Le Bataillon créole, 2013 Les Saint-Aubert, Les trente-douze mille douleurs 1920-1940, 2014 Citoyens au-dessus de tout soupçon..., 2014 Madame St-Clair, reine de Harlem, 2015 Du rififi chez les fils de la veuve, 2017 L'épopée mexicaine de Romulus Bonnaventure, 2018 L'Enlèvement du mardi gras, 2019 Grand Café Martinique, 2020 Deux détonations, 2020 Du Morne-des-Esses au Djebel, 2020 La Muse ténébreuse de Charles Baudelaire, 2021
References
External links Curry, Ginette. "Toubab La!": Literary Representations of Mixed-race Characters in the African Diaspora.Cambridge Scholars Pub., Newcastle, England.2007 .