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Political illusions of an intervention in the linguistic domain in Martinique

Political illusions of an intervention in the linguistic domain in Martinique LAMBERT-FELIX PRUDENT The aim of this contribution is to examine the recent history of the attempts at intervention in the matter of Creole in Martinique, a singledepartment1 region of overseas France, and more broadly to consider once again the relations between national demands and linguistic militancy, in order to raise the question of the validity of a glottopolitical effort in the Caribbean. I propose to verify to what extent this sociolinguistic concept, borrowed from Robert Hall (1966), can shed light on Martinican reality, by studying the workings of cultural and political forces arraying themselves on the question of linguistic identity. Finally, I attempt to understand how discourses and practices of valorization/standardization of Creole can become mere illusions when an attentive evaluation of the sociopolitical power relations and the cultural stakes is not carefully carried out. Taking this course, I will not hide the fact that the situation described here touches me for more than one reason and that it includes a large subjective dimension, since it calls for my returning to consider a period of activism in which I was one of the actors, first as an active member and then (and this is often harder to endure) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of the Sociology of Language de Gruyter

Political illusions of an intervention in the linguistic domain in Martinique

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References (6)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by the
ISSN
0165-2516
eISSN
1613-3668
DOI
10.1515/ijsl.1993.102.135
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

LAMBERT-FELIX PRUDENT The aim of this contribution is to examine the recent history of the attempts at intervention in the matter of Creole in Martinique, a singledepartment1 region of overseas France, and more broadly to consider once again the relations between national demands and linguistic militancy, in order to raise the question of the validity of a glottopolitical effort in the Caribbean. I propose to verify to what extent this sociolinguistic concept, borrowed from Robert Hall (1966), can shed light on Martinican reality, by studying the workings of cultural and political forces arraying themselves on the question of linguistic identity. Finally, I attempt to understand how discourses and practices of valorization/standardization of Creole can become mere illusions when an attentive evaluation of the sociopolitical power relations and the cultural stakes is not carefully carried out. Taking this course, I will not hide the fact that the situation described here touches me for more than one reason and that it includes a large subjective dimension, since it calls for my returning to consider a period of activism in which I was one of the actors, first as an active member and then (and this is often harder to endure)

Journal

International Journal of the Sociology of Language – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1993

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