ABSTRACTS

A Better Design

Keithley Woolward
(The University of the Bahamas)

This is the second paper proposed for the panel: "Dis-functions, Malfunctions, Functionality in the World LIteratures in French Manifestoes."


Building on Kathryn Kleppinger's analysis of the Littérature-Monde project, Keithley Woolward proposes to look more closely at essays by the Caribbean signatories (Condé, Glissant, Trouillot, Victor) as a preferred starting point for a redesigned manifesto or program. He will thus highlight and attempt to neutralize the apparent blind spots in some of the essays by the France-based, French-born, or European-born writers, asking such questions as: Is the history of the ravages of colonialism in danger of being re-forgotten? Are some essays still conforming to the "white mask" model, with the European self always serving as point of departure for both the universal and the designation of the "other?"