{"id":118,"date":"2022-03-24T18:55:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T18:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/texacowiki\/?page_id=118"},"modified":"2024-07-29T21:17:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T21:17:11","slug":"oiseau-de-cham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/texacowiki\/oiseau-de-cham\/","title":{"rendered":"Oiseau de Cham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the many traditions stemming from Africa is the art of oral storytelling<\/a>. Mother to daughter, grandfather to grandson, aunt to nephew, friend to friend \u2013 from whomever it may be, and to whomever it may go, stories, histories, and traditions are passed down through words of passion. Patrick Chamoiseau<\/a>, best known for his 1992 novel Texaco,<\/em> has had a large impact on the cr\u00e9olit\u00e9 movement — a movement emphasizing the history of culture and language in the French Caribbean. The oral form of storytelling from Africa\u2019s French Caribbean is one tradition that, as an alter ego named Oiseau de Cham, Chamoiseau aimed to accentuate in his novel Texaco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Oiseau de Cham, the Word Scratcher<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Texaco<\/em>, Chamoiseau writes a fictional narrative based on his experiences living in Martinique<\/a> and the histories of his family and community. The format of the novel takes on the appearance of a story being passed through many people \u2013 whether that be through \u201cThe Urban planner\u2019s notes to the Word Scratcher,\u201d \u201cThe Word Scratcher to the source,\u201d Esternome <\/a>to Marie-Sophie Laboriex, or Marie-Sophie to the Word Scratcher (Texaco 115-116). The passing of the story orally through the characters in the novel reflects an inherent culture of Africa, \u201cthe origin of the oral tradition\u201d (Sourieau 136). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this alter-ego, Oiseau de Cham, the author continues the oral-telling feel of the novel as a character who receives his writing inspiration from the orally told story of Marie-Sophie Laboriex, Texaco\u2019s founder and the main character of the novel. The oral tradition and the evolution of oral tradition are fundamentals of \u201cthe expression of Caribbeanness\u201d (Sourieau 132). Chamoiseau \u201cfree[s] himself of the unicity of one linguistic practice,\u201d in order to enrich the novel with the \u201cmultilingualism that is Creole\u201d (Sourieau 136). Chamoiseau\u2019s passion for the heritage of Creole and the Caribbean is transferred into his character of Oiseau de Cham in the novel. As such, Oiseau de Cham records not just Mari-Sophie\u2019s history, but the history and character of the Caribbean land she and her family inhabited. He records in great detail the plantations, gardens, fields, and cities. He utilizes language in a mixture of French and Creole that is unique to Martinique and its neighbors. He describes the people and their hutches, their traditions, and their relationships. It is clear in the novel that the Word Scratcher\u2019s interest lies beyond that of Marie-Sophie\u2019s story in the feel and voice of her land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chamoiseau largely reflects the Creole<\/a> heritage through the characters in his novels. The novel Texaco, <\/em>published in 1992, is Patrick Chamoiseau’s third novel. It was the winner of the 1992 Prix Goncourt, a prize in French Literature (Mead 49). In the novel, Patrick Chamoiseau implements himself into the story as a \u201cnarratorial alter-ego, Oiseau de Cham\u201d (Mead 49). Oiseau de Cham, also known in the novel as the Word Scratcher, acts as the scribe of the story being told throughout the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France\u2019s influence inspired the character which is Oiseau de Cham to express as much beauty and importance in the land of Martinique in his writing as Chamoiseau does himself. The country of France imposed its strength, the \u201claw of the Father,\u201d on Africa and, subsequently, Martinique — globalizing the continent and changing the future of the culture its power touched (Sourieau 136). As such, Chamoiseau was forever impacted by France\u2019s influence on his Creole heritage, culture, and environment — inspiring the \u201cCreolization\u201d of his writing that he has become known for (A Reader in the Room 349). \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another character in the novel closely tied to Oiseau de Cham is the Urban Planner<\/a>. This character, also referred to as \u201cThe Christ,\u201d was assigned the job of deciding the future of Texaco, the land founded by Marie-Sophie (Texaco 9). After coming to survey the community, the Christ encounters Marie-Sophie, who tells the story of her family and how she founded Texaco. Together, Marie-Sophie and The Urban Planner share her story to Oiseau de Cham. The Word Scratcher writes Marie-Sophie\u2019s story as she tells it, arranging and organizing it into the book we, the readers, consume. Meanwhile, the Urban Planner, who was greatly inspired by Marie-Sophie\u2019s story, shares his own knowledge<\/a> of her history through letters to the Word Scratcher. The Urban Planner\u2019s letters aren\u2019t the only pieces of writing witnessed in the novel of Texaco<\/em>, as Marie-Sophie\u2019s own journal entries are interspersed into Oiseau de Cham\u2019s writing as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allegorical Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Chamoiseau is known for his unique writing style. Having the tendency to Creolize his writing, in which he implements \u201ca Creole structure that is very particular,\u201d his work stresses the importance of history and \u201cauthenticity… the truth of our reality\u201d (A Reader in the Room 345). Many readers find his work to be difficult to read, including his famous work Texaco<\/em>. This is because his narration has \u201copaque, unintelligible, untranslatable zones which are maybe true for [Chamoiseu] and do correspond to realities which… are opaque to [readers]\u201d (A Reader in the Room 347). He has no qualms about confusing his readers with language or culture that they may not understand \u2013 in fact, he goes as far as to forego a glossary in his original novel Texaco \u2013 <\/em>in order to be true to the reality of the words \u201csuch as they are\u201d (A Reader in the Room 347). Chamoiseau\u2019s value of truth and authenticity can be seen in his character, the Word Scratcher. The Word Scratcher, in charge of organizing the information given to him by Marie-Sophie\u2019s story, her journal entries, and the notes from the Urban Planner<\/a>, chooses to keep in many of Marie-Sophie\u2019s tangents, instead of chronologically organizing the book. He finds value in the truth of her story and prefers instead to follow its authenticity and capture its essence over its logic or sensibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chamoiseau is also partial to figurative language and rhetoric in his writings. He tends to lean towards language that pairs the \u201ctruth with a kind of rhetoric that aims to strike the reader, to astonish him, to help him somewhat understand what I am narrating to him\u201d (A Reader in the Room 347). He uses such techniques as \u201ctraditional folktale, magic realism, and metafictional devices\u201d in order to combine elements of orality, written word, history, fiction, and the Cr\u00e9olit\u00e9 movement (Mead 49). The character “Oiseau de Cham” is itself another one of Chamoiseau\u2019s figurative tools. The name “Oiseau de Cham” is a wordplay on the author\u2019s last name (Chamoiseau) and can be translated to \u201cBird of the Field\u201d (Texaco 400). The use of the term bird<\/a> should not go unnoticed in this instance as the animal is often used as a symbol of freedom. Meanwhile, in Texaco<\/em>, the author focuses often on the lay of the land that is Martinique. He describes everything from the plantation fields to its cities of Fort-de-France <\/a>and Saint-Pierre to the gardens of simple, Martinique farmers. The implementation of the character Oiseau de Cham is not a singular occurrence but can be witnessed as a motif in multiple works by the author as a vessel led by \u201cthe study of Martinican life\u201d (Texaco 400). Perhaps on this occasion, the name represents the role of Oiseau de Cham as a speaker of truth \u2013 of which the author has a high value \u2013 on behalf of the culture, history, beauty, and struggles of Martinique. Furthermore, by using the wordplay of “Oiseau de Cham,” the author may be making a statement such that truth is the road to freedom, specifically the freedom and truth of Martinique.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Works Cited<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chamoiseau, Patrick. Texaco<\/em>. Trans. Rose-Myriam R\u00e9jouis & Val Vinokurov. NY: Vintage, 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— & Rose-Myriam Rejouis. \u201cA Reader in the Room: Rose-Myriam Rejouis Meets Patrick Chamoiseau.\u201d Callaloo<\/em>, vol. 22, no. 2, 1999, pp. 346\u2013350., https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/cal.1999.0094<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mead, Matthew. \u201cRelay and Translation: An Anglophone Reads Patrick Chamoiseau’s Texaco.\u201d Kunapipi<\/em>, vol. 28, no. 1, 2006, pp. 47-58. https:\/\/ro.uow.edu.au\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1821&context=kunapipi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sourieau, Marie-Agn\u00e8s. \u201cPatrick Chamoiseau, Solibo Magnifique: From the Escheat of Speech to the Emergence of Language.\u201d Callaloo<\/em>, vol. 15, no. 1, 1992, pp. 131-137. https:\/\/ro.uow.edu.au\/kunapipi\/vol28\/iss1\/7\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Editorial Collective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brooke Simpson, Lena Juenger, Rebecca Loftus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction One of the many traditions stemming from Africa is the art of oral storytelling. Mother to daughter, grandfather to grandson, aunt to nephew, friend to friend \u2013 from whomever it may be, and to whomever it may go, stories, histories, and traditions are passed down through words of passion. 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