Carolyn J. Allen
Tutor/Coordinator
Philip Sherlock Centre
UWI, Mona

The Creolization Debate and Caribbean Literary Theory

As cross-cultural contact around the world increases in frequency and complexity, as the “centre” attempts to come to terms with the “periphery”, the embattled notion of “creolization” appears more frequently in literary and cultural discourse outside the Caribbean. Even though here, we still seem to have a mudddled understanding at best of what it means. In current usage little remains of its original application to the offspring of Old World stock born in the New World. Indeed, across the region the root term “creole” has served distinct and varied purposes in different language enclaves, at different periods. Yet, despite this analytically problematic diversity, each language area has known literary movements designated “creole” from “criollismo” to “cre?olite?”. Why is this?

A comparative examination of these movements, their theories and poetics, uncovers not only the complexity of the concept of creoleness, but an opportunity to bring some clarity by way of identifying the common, essential elements of the dynamics of Caribbeanness.

With this objective in mind, the paper will undertake a comparative analysis of statements on creole literature in three languages (English, French and Spanish) set against the background of the debate between pro-creolists, like myself, and the counter arguments of Sylvia Wynter, Cecil Gutzmore and others.