Abstract
This essay constellates and compares two major writers of Caribbean origin—the Cuban Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980) and the French writer born in Martinique, René Maran (1887–1960). Though both Caribbean authors share some remarkable resemblances in terms of the evolution of an ethnographic representation in their early works, they have rarely (if ever) been juxtaposed in a comparative analysis. Moreover, the point of departure for this comparative reading is a rare document by Carpentier, one of the Cuban author's first published texts: a review he wrote of Maran's Batouala (Prix Goncourt, 1921) while still a teenager. Carpentier notes elsewhere that Batouala was avidly read by a generation of Cuban writers and intellectuals and therefore impacted the afrocubanismo movement in Cuban culture. The essay goes on to show a parallel development between Carpentier and Maran in terms of the way they negotiate their representation of the other through ethnographic approaches (Ecue-Yamba-O, Batouala), Enlightenment tropes (such as the bon sauvage) and historical representation (El reino de este mundo, Maran's biography of Jacques Cartier), and the confessional novel (Los pasos perdidos, Un homme pareil aux autres).
Published Version
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