Creole in the Caribbean: How Oral Discourse creates Cultural Identities

Abstract

The fictional recreation of Creole in Caribbean English literature has been traditionally studied using Eurocentric criteria. When compared to British English, Creole was considered a debased deviation (DeCamp, 1971; Hall, 1966). Creole is associated with oral discourse, one reason for its growing use in literature. Caribbean writers have represented the Caribbean experience through the use of fictional Creole. The contemporary novel has thus been transformed by African-derived modes of narration which highlight the performative role of communicative interaction. With its attempt to reconstruct the processes involved in this transformation, this paper addresses issues relating to oral and written literary traditions that shed light on the linguistic forms of Creole as used in postcolonial Caribbean English literature. These forms may be seen as cultural determiners of Creole identity.