Christina Kullberg Poetics of Ethnography in Martinican Narratives

Annotation

<p>Drawing on narratives from Martinique by Aim Csaire, douard Glissant, Ina Csaire, and Patrick Chamoiseau, among others, Christina Kullberg shows how these writers turn to ethnographyeven as they critique itas an exploration and expression of the self. They acknowledge its tradition as a colonial discourse and a study of others, but they also argue for ethnographys advantage in connecting subjectivity to the outside world. Further, they find that ethnography offers the possibility of capturing within the hybrid culture of the Caribbean an emergent self that nonetheless remains attached to its collective history and environment. Rather than claiming to be able to represent the culture they also feel alienated from, these writers explore the relationships between themselves, the community, and the environment. <p>Although Kullbergs focus is on Martinique, her work opens up possibilities for intertextual readings and comparative studies of writers from every linguistic region in the Caribbeannot only francophone but also Hispanic and anglophone. In addition, her interdisciplinary approach extends the reach of her work beyond postcolonial and literary studies to anthropology and ecocriticism.</p>