Récits d’enfance antillaise au XXIe siècle: élans des possibles et de l’espérance

Abstract

This study builds on current scholarship on Caribbean childhood narratives. It revisits recent poetics and textual modalities that typify this precious yet fragile world. Our research will focus on contemporary writings and trends that highlight themes of childhood, memory, mobility, and self-expression in which the «drafts of the self» (to borrow Lejeune’s concept) are either at the margins or at the center of oftentimes difficult family and social dynamics, and where the search for a sense of belonging to a community is sometimes dashed, other times realized. Embedded within these childhood narratives are expressions of hope, cohesion, stability and human connections in order to counter unsettling contradictions and promote the ideal of a better future. With these in mind, writers commit their work to exploring poetic forms and genres, landscapes and sounds, generating a mosaic of texts that capture the reader’s attention to the plight of today’s youth, empathizing with them and opening new frontiers where they can express themselves, pursue their dreams and realize their aspirations.