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© Hartwig Klappert
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Daniel Maximin
Guadeloupe/France
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Daniel Maximin was born
in 1947 in Saint-Claude, Guadeloupe. In 1960 he moved to France with
his family, and studied Literature and Anthropology at the Sorbonne,
Paris. He became professor of Literature at the Centre culturel d’Orly,
and from 1980 to 1989 was the head of programming for the publisher
Présence Africaine. He also produced a culture show for television and
subsequently worked for eight years in Guadeloupe as head of cultural
affairs. In 1998, after returning to the French capital, he was
assigned responsibility for planning the celebrations for the 150th
anniversary of the French abolition of slavery in 1848. Since 2000 he
has worked as cultural commissioner for the Ministry of Education and
currently heads the literature and education section of the
»francofffonies!« literature festival (2006).
Maximin’s literary
work – which includes novels, poems and essays – distinguishes itself
through lyrical expressivity, and is marked by the influence of
Caribbean music and rhythm. His first novel, the family saga »L’Isolé
soleil« (1981; Eng. »Lone Sun«, 1989) details 200 years of colonial
history in Guadeloupe. The story is documented in letters in which the
young protagonist writes of her family and forebears, stretching back
to the time of the French Revolution, when the Antilles briefly
achieved freedom. Through the use of various genres – such as third
person narration, monologue, verse, diary entry, letters and reports –
Maximin depicts the history both of the family and the group of islands
up to the present day. In doing so he also bestows special emphasis on
the various forms of resistance that emerged in the musical, cultural
and artistic spheres, showing a special respect for the »Négritude«
movement founded by Aimé Césaire. With »Soufrières« (1987; t: Brimstone
mines) and »L’lle et une nuit« (1995; t: The island and one night)
Maximin expanded his first novel into a trilogy.
The fifty or so
poems which make up the collection »L’Invention des désirades« (2000;
t: The invention of desires) were described by one French critic as
»Hymns to resistance«. Following the publication of his
autobiographical novel »Tu, c’est l’enfance« (2004; t: You are the
childhood), Maximin’s most recent publication is »Les Fruits du
cyclone« (2006; t: The fruit of the cyclone), a »Geopoetics of the
Caribbean«, with which he again celebrates the local fusion of
traditions and cultures. »Four centuries after the Flood from which the
Caribbean emerged it is making itself heard through the voices of its
storytellers and dancers, countrymen and architects, musicians and
poets: We will accept degradation, in order to use it to create
diamonds not just for ourselves but for the world as a whole.«
The
author was awarded the Prix Maurice Genevoix of the Académie française
and the Prix Tropiques. He is Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and
Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. Maximin lives in Paris.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Soufrières
Ed. du Seuil
Paris, 1995
L’Ile et une nuit
Ed. du Seuil
Paris, 1995
L’Invention des désirades
Présence Africaine
Paris, 2000
Tu, c’est l’enfance
Gallimard
Paris, 2004
Sonnenschwarz
Rotpunktverlag
Zürich, 2004
[T: Klaus Laabs]
Les Fruits du cyclone
Ed. du Seuil
Paris, 2006 |
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