This semester again my graduate/undergraduate seminar at the U of Tokyo deals with Guadeloupean literature. For the past three semesters 2003-2004 we have read Maryse Conde's Traversee de la mangrove, Simone Schwarz-Bart's Pluie et vent sur Telumee Miracle and Ti-Jean L'horizon. Now we've just begun Daniel Maximin's L'isole soleil.
All through these works "nature as a character" has been very present. It's not an anthropomorphic character, of course, but an environment-agent that intervenes in human history in a peculiarly active-passive way. This needs to be articulated. Here is a quote from L'isole soleil:
Chaque fois que tu oublieras de decrire la nature tropicale non pas comme un decor, mais comme un personnage de ton histoire, qui a aussi ses revoltes et ses lachetes, qui offre trop de fleurs aux jardiniers, et trop d'anses aux caravelles, alors tu te souviendras que les pays ou il fait trop beau sont comme des ventres maternels hostiles aux renaissances. (18)
I am asked to write a little book on eco-criticism and in the process to gather some ideas on how to treat one's imaginary, represented landscapes, and actual narrative strategies used by the authors. This will be a vast terrain to cover.
