Poésie martiniquaise du tournant du XIXe siècle : fictions d’une identité et d’une altérité

Abstract

This paper focuses on Martinican poetry at the turn of the 19th century, which is defined by critics as Doudouist or exotic poetry. It is the distinct notion of exoticism that we will try to capture as a fiction of the self, since these poets frequently assume the persona of an outsider — a stranger to their own island — and adopt an exotic gaze on Martinique. Admittedly, the use of exoticism seems to be a consequence of the alienation of the colonial subject, preyed upon by metropolitan hegemony. And yet, it may offer a poetic outlook on the world capable of bringing about Diversity, as defined by Victor Segalen. To that end, this study attempts to compare two specific conceptions of exoticism which stem from the exotic ethos adopted by Martinican poets. Firstly, the idea that the traditionally criticised Doudouist poetry embodies the alienation of an author who adopts metropolitan poetic models, inventing a fiction of the self that is foreign to his identity. Secondly, the reinterpretation of exoticism as a poetics that allows the author in a colonial context to remodel the landscape while regaining his identity in the process. In essence, exoticism in Martinican poetry presents a conundrum in so far as it acts both as a mark of alienation, and as a poetics threatening colonial order. This article aims at rehabilitating a much-decried Martinican poetry by emphasizing the literary practices of detour, parody and writing back. It will be a question of grasping how such practices allow Martinican poets to conquer their identity, paradoxically — and this is what seizes our attention here — by adopting the ethos of an exotic person, an outsider. The fiction of otherness, albeit veiled, ultimately reveals the unique identity of the Martinican subject.