Jean Bernabé (1942 in

Le Lorrain Le Lorrain (; Martinican Creole: ) is a town and commune in the French overseas region and department of Martinique. Population Personalities * Raphaël Confiant *Jean Bernabé See also *Communes of the Martinique department The following i ...

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

– 12 April 2017 in

Fort-De-France Fort-de-France (, , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Fodfwans) is a Communes of France, commune and the capital city of Martinique, an overseas department and region of France located in the Caribbean. It is also one of the major cities in the ...

, Martinique) was a writer and linguist. Bernabé was a professor of language and culture at the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane. He was an important figure in the

créolité ''Créolité'' is a literary movement first developed in the 1980s by the Martinican writers Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. They published ''Eloge de la créolité'' (In Praise of Creoleness) in 1989 as a response to the ...

movement, having co-authored the seminal 1989 essay on the subject, ''Eloge de la créolité'' (In Praise of Creoleness), with

Patrick Chamoiseau Patrick Chamoiseau (born 3 December 1953) is a French author from Martinique known for his work in the créolité movement. His work spans a variety of forms and genres, including novels, essays, children's books, screenplays, theatre and comics. ...

and

Raphaël Confiant Raphaël Confiant (born January 25, 1951) is a Martinican writer known for his literary commitment towards Creole literature. Life and career Raphaël Confiant was born in Le Lorrain, Martinique. He studied English and political science at the ...

. Although Bernabé's work lauds the

Créole Creole may refer to: Anthropology * Creole peoples, ethnic groups which originated from linguistic, cultural, and often racial mixing of colonial-era emigrants from Europe with non-European peoples * Criollo people, the historic name of people ...

language, on which he has written seminal works, his literary creation is exclusively in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

, to make it more accessible to international readers. However, he also had an influence on the emergence of modern literature in Créole.

Biography

Bernabé studied Classics at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and in 1982, he defended his thesis in Linguistics on Antillean Créole titled ''Fondal Natal : Grammaire basilecticale approchée des Créoles guadeloupéen et martiniquais,'' which was published by

Harmattan The Harmattan is a season in West Africa that occurs between the end of November and the middle of March. It is characterized by the dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind, of the same name, which blows from the Sahara over West Africa into the ...

in 1983. From 1973, Bernabé worked at the Centre Universitaire des Antilles in Guadaloupe until it was moved to Martinique in 1982, at which point he returned to Martinique as well. In 1975, while still writing his thesis, he founded the ''Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches en Espaces créolophones'' (GEREC'')'' in Guadaloupe. This later became GEREC-F, the F added to acknowledge the enduring

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

presence in antillean society and the coexistence of the two languages. In 1976, he founded the journal ''Espace Créole.'' Bernabé began writing fiction near the end of his University career, publishing his first novel, ''Le bailleur d'étincelle'' in 2002. Though written in French, his novels aim to promote and preserve Martinican oral tradition. Bernabé was one of the founders of French creolistics and created the first modern

phonemic orthography A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...

for Martinican and Guadeloupean Créole languages, as well as a

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...

compiling all French-based Créole languages. His research focused not only on linguistics but also on Créole identity. In 1989, along with Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant, he wrote ''Éloge de la créolité,'' presenting their vision of Créole identity and founding the créolité movement. Bernabé played an active role in the recognition of Créole in policy and education and advocated for the introduction of a Certificate of aptitude for secondary school teachers (CAPES) in Créole, for which he wrote school books on Créole spelling, grammar and literature. Bernabé became more engaged in political matters, writing critiques online on issues such as

departmentalization Departmentalization (or departmentalisation) refers to the process of grouping activities into departments. Division of labour creates Expert, specialists who need :wikt:coordination, coordination. This coordination is facilitated by grouping specia ...

, migration, violence and cultural identity. He was critical of the French administration of its Overseas departments and regions, viewing it as a continuation of

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

rule, and advocating for

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

. Some of his positions, including his opposition to

Négritude ''Négritude'' (from French "Nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African ...

have been controversial among his peers.

Bibliography

* ''Fondal-Natal'', essay (1976) * ''Fondas-Kréyol'', essay (1982) * ''Eloge de la créolité'', essay (1989) (with Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant) * ''Grammaire Créole'' (2000) * ''La Graphie créole'' (2001) * ''La Gable créole'' (2001) * ''Le Bailleur d'étincelle'', novel (2002) * ''Précis de syntaxe créole'' (2003) * ''Le partage des ancêtres'', novel (2004) *''Sur les chemins de l'histoire antillaise''. ''Mélanges offerts à Lucien Abenon'' (with Serge Mam-lam-Fouck, 2006) *''La Malgeste des mornes,'' novel (2006) * ''Litanie pour le nègre fondamental'', novel (2008) * ''Obidjoul'' (2013) * ''La France, pays de race blanche'' (2016) * ''La dérive identitariste'', essay (2016)

External links

Le Bloc-notes de Jean Bernabé

Potomitan: Jean Bernabé

References

1942 births 2017 deaths People from Le Lorrain Martiniquais writers Linguists from France 20th-century linguists 20th-century French male writers 20th-century essayists 21st-century linguists 21st-century French novelists 21st-century essayists 21st-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers Créolité {{France-linguist-stub