ABSTRACTS

litterature-monde and New Caledonian literature

Dominique Jouve
(Universite de la Nouvelle-Calédonie)

Literature in New Caledonia was and is still written in French, although since the beginings, it has established a strong link with kanak culture, which expresses itself in the 28 kanak languages spoken in the archipelago (some 35 languages around 1900). The intended paper will examine why the French system (university, school system and publishing companies) has always excluded or minimized what was produced in the confetti of the old french colonial empire. Colonialism, neo-colonialism are not totally relevant as means of explanation; in fact, the concept of place (as opposite to globalization) seems more appropriate to think the resistance of authors writing stories, poems, dramas, essays in which the conflicts are always grounded in the land and in specific areas of cultural significance. Are post colonial studies a pertinent approach of a territory whih still lives under French law? A concept (but is it a concept, and not a new packaging?)like "litterature-monde" could at least help us to point our fingers on the problem of Pacific islanders struggling to be recognized in a dominant/ dominated relationship, but we are obliged to stress the point that from all the authors who signed the manifesto none comes from the Pacific: is it still a black point in the world literary map?