Decolonizing the Text : Glissanntian Readings in Caribbean and African American Literatures

Edouard Glissant's conception of history, literature, and Caribbean identity, "antillanite," as exposed in his seminal work, "Le Discours antillais," provides the critical underpinnings of the literary analyses presented in this work. This study derives from the works of the Martinician poet, novelist and theorist a reading that decolonizes the text. Glissant's "poetique de la relation" is the foundation that enables contemporary criticism to cross Dubois' -color line- and examine the "metissage intertextuel" manifest in the works of Toni Morrison, Patrick Chamoiseau, and William Faulkner."