La Lézarde (1958) et Malemort (1975) d’Édouard Glissant : dire l’esthétique archipélique depuis la Martinique et l’aire des Caraïbes

In this work, we will mainly focus on Edouard Glissant’s archipelago aesthetics. Indeed, the West Indian novelist-orator uses in La Lézarde (1958) and Malemort (1975) a kind of rhetoric which reflects not only the history of the slave trade, but also the Caribbean island landscape. This is how the writer cultivates Caribbean ethnopoetics, without falling into the trap of standardisation or reductionism. In others words, the fiery indictment that the writer has drawn up against the oppressors is inextricably linked to a plea made to defend the cause of West Indian culture, by exhorting the Caribbean people to recover their historical memory and to take their destiny into their own hands. It is specifically in that context that the Edouard Glissant’s romantic epic and sublime beauty are fully in line with his archipelago aesthetics.