These are some useful terms for understanding and interpreting Caribbean literature. While these terms focus on literary movements of the French-speaking Caribbean, they also broadly apply to literary movements accross the Caribbean.
Negritude- a movement that sought to recover and define the richness of black cultural values in reaction to the dominant values of European colonialism. The movement emerged specifically as a protest against French colonial rule and the French policy of assimilation. Negritude implies the total acceptance of African heritage.
Some leading authors in this movement include:
Aime Cesaire
Daniel Maximin
Xavier Orville
Leon-Gontran Damas
Antillanite- a movement led by Edouard Glissant that encouraged people in the Caribbean to find their our cultural and national identities, despite their different colonial histories. Glissant encouraged postcolonial Caribbean society to overcome national fragmentation in order to understand its "Caribbeaness".
Creolite- a movement that seeks to validate the popular culture of Caribbean societies. An important element of this movement is the influence of oral tradition. Many authors of this movement attempt to combine the oral language of Creole with the written language of French. Creolite authors place importance on the popular culture of Caribbean peoples. Popular music, popular religion, folk traditions, and folk tales all have an influence in literature of the Creolite movement.
Some leading authors of this movement include:
Jean Bernabe
Patrick Chamoiseau
Raphael Confiant
La Folie Antillaise- a recurrent motif in the literature of the French Antilles. The term means "madness". This "madness" can be expressed as a defense mechanism, or as a splitting of an inner and outer self. The theme is used to show the difficulty of living in a society that has been controlled by outside powers. It dramatizes the difficulty of expressing identity in a colonial language that does not value Caribbean cultural ideals.