In Search of a National Identity: Creole and Politics in Guadaloupe

By Ellen M. Schnepel

Guadeloupe (as well as Martinique, Guyane, and R union) is one of the former colonies of France that chose to remain tied to the mother country rather than seek independence following World War II. Through the 1946 law of political assimilation, these territories became d partements d'outre-mer. Departmentalization, however, failed to bring about full social and economic equality. As political integration increased economic and commercial dependency on the metropole, the pressure of homogenization to the French model precipitated the loss of cultural autonomy.
In the 1960s, an anticolonialist movement pushing for a change in political status appeared in Guadeoupe. The nationalist movement was rejuvenated in the 1970s by the selection of the Creole language as a symbol of political and cultural resistance to assimilation, conduit and container of an alternate ideology, and emblem of Guadeloupean identity and island specificity. With this resurgence of interest in kr y l, a proliferation of associations, groups, and individuals became actively engaged in research and efforts to standardize and develop the language and to popularize its use in new public domains.
This case study of the mouvement cr ole in Guadeloupe analyzes three key sites of conflict - the school, the media, and the political process - in relation to the local, regional, and national levels that structure these arenas. While the monograph is important in illuminating a new concept of identity for the region, the work singles out key differences between the Creole movement in Guadeloupe and its counterpoint, cr olit , in Martinique. Both succeeded the earlier formulations of difference in the French Antilles - n gritude and antillanit . The study is especially relevant in light of the current and very polemical debate concerning the introduction of an exam for Creole (the CAPES cr ole) in 2001 for secondary school teachers in France and in the four overseas departments. This educational directive was a response to the demand that Creole receive equal status with the other regional languages (e.g. Occitan, Breton, Basque) in France.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3875483243
• ISBN13: 9783875483246
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"