Self-Writing in the Caribbean Context: Contrasting Perspectives
International conference for early-career researchers
Organized by the University of the Antilles and the University of Kassel (Germany)
June 23-24, 2026, University of the Antilles, Schoelcher Campus, Martinique
Organizing Committee: Kirsten Behr (Universität Kassel), Clara Rochemont (Université des Antilles), Jacopo Romei (Universität Kassel)
Self-writing in Caribbean literature is shaped by the region’s rich and complex tapestry of cultural and linguistic influences, as well as by the enduring legacy of colonialism in its many forms. In this context, the act of saying “I” or “we” from a historically marginalized position entails confronting hegemonic systems of representation that delimit enunciation and restrict access to a voice recognized as legitimate. First-person discourse is never neutral; it often operates as a normative device that excludes minoritized subjects. In this light, claiming universality for the literary subject may require a form of disidentification or self-effacement in order to conform to dominant discursive norms. Who has the authority to write Caribbean literature, and for whom is it written?
There is a growing body of scholarly work addressing Caribbean self-writing, notably Sandra Pouchet Paquet’s Caribbean Autobiography (2002), the first monograph dedicated to this topic. This was followed by studies such as Childhood, Autobiography and the Francophone Caribbean (2013) by Louise Hardwick, which foregrounds childhood as a key lens for life-writing, and Edgard Sankara’s Postcolonial Francophone Autobiographies: From Africa to the Antilles (2011). However, research that fully engages with the region’s linguistic and cultural diversity – and that attempts a comparative approach to self-writing across different Caribbean traditions – remains scarce. Our conference aims to address this gap and is primarily intended for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
We invite proposals that explore one or more of the following research areas:
Dispute with History
Life narratives not only complement historical archives but often challenge and subvert them. Caribbean life-writing frequently contests the erasure of personal and familial histories from official island historiographies, asserting an epistemic agency within the narrative of the archipelago. In this context, boundaries between autobiography and fiction are often blurred. We welcome contributions that examine these tensions between fact and fiction, history and story. Relevant texts may include slave narratives such as The History of Mary Prince (1831), novels such as Je suis martiniquaise (1948) by Mayotte Capécia—long (mis)read as authentic autobiography, or works like Assata (1998) by Assata Shakur, written and published in political exile.
Disputes with Genre
Autobiography, as a literary genre, was adapted and appropriated by the Caribbean authors from colonial literary canons. During colonial times, reports by colonized subjects educated in colonial institutions often served to reproduce colonial ideologies. Today, Caribbean self-expression remains caught between the pressures of a global literary market and the imperative to bear witness to life under colonial rule. This tension is often manifest in conflicts between orality and writing, as well as between colonizer and colonized languages. We invite researchers to examine both the production and reception contexts of Caribbean life-writing and how these contexts are thematized within the texts themselves by Caribbean authors.
Disputes with Gender
With The Female Autograph (1984), Domna Stanton was among the first to critique autobiography as a masculine genre, one that reproduces patrilineal and patriarchal logics. This conference aims to revisit such critiques in the Caribbean context. Participants are encouraged not only to re-examine canonical texts of Caribbean life-writing—such as Patrick Chamoiseau’s Une enfance créole (1993–2005)—but to do so through a queer lens, highlighting how these texts challenge heteronormative, patriarchal, and colonial norms (Wittig 1992). Special attention will also be given to texts written by and/or about queer individuals, whose non-normative gender identities and sexualities place them at the margins of dominant narratives. Works such as Tongues on Fire (1998) by Rosamund Elwin and Antes que anochezca (1992) by Reinaldo Arenas foreground minoritized experiences while reimagining modes of self-writing from queer, diasporic, and subaltern positions.
Rather than attempting to fix a definition of “self-writing,” this conference seeks to reflect on the implications of ongoing debates and explore how Caribbean authors engage with the literary and political stakes of life-writing.
Submission Guidelines
Abstracts (400 words) in English, Spanish, or French, accompanied by a short bio-bibliography (100 words), should be sent by August 29th , 2025 to: kbehr@uni-kassel.de ; clara.rochement@univ-antilles.
Scientific committee:
Axel Arthéron (Université des Antilles)
Anne Brüske (Université de Ratisbonne)
Claudia Gronemann (Université de Mannheim)
Agnieszka Komorowska (Université de Kassel)
Gerry L’Étang (Université des Antilles)
Kirenia Rodríguez Puerto (Universidad de La Habana)
Lisa Tomlinson (University of the West Indies)
Bibliographie / Bibliography / Bibliografía :
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Brown, Lisa R. : « Caribbean Life-Writing and Performative Liberation », in : Bucknor, Michael A. (dir.), The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature, 2022, pp. 276–283.
Buata Bundu Malela / Hans Färnlöf : Position(s) du sujet francophone, Paris : Éditions du Cerf, 2021.
Cacchioli, Emanuela : « La littérature francophone et ses subjectivités », dossier coordonné par L. Lawson-Hellu, Studi Francesi, 198 (LXVI | III), 2022, pp. 729–730.
Cassin, Laura (dir.) : Littératures francophones : oralité et mondialités, Paris : Honoré Champion, 2021.
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