Condé, Creation, Consumption and Cannibalism

Maryse Condé’s Histoire de la femme cannibale (2003) narrates the Black artist Rosélie’s attempt to uncover the truth about her white partner Stephen’s death in South Africa, and hence understand their histoire together and reach a greater degree of creative autonomy. In spite of the trauma it describes, the novel is often playful and ironic in its treatment of racism, creativity and sexual relations. This has led some readers to emphasize above all else Condé’s postmodern resistance to being pigeonholed by race or, as a Caribbean author, to represent Negritude, for example. Nevertheless, alongside, or perhaps by virtue of, its subtle exploration of degrees of everyday hypocrisy and complex historical sensitivities, the novel helps readers to ‘lean in’ to experiences which may be far detached from their own, just as Rosélie empathizes with a woman accused of cannibalism

Aesthetics · Art · Biology · Cannibalism · Consumption (sociology) · Geography · Predation · Ecology · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis