ABSTRACT
In an article entitled 'Resisting Autobiography: Out-Law Genres and Transnational Feminist Subjects', Caren Kaplan defines testimonial literature as work that 'takes the form of first-person narrative elicited, transcribed and edited by another person'. The models of reading and authorship that John Beverley develops take for granted a humanist conception of collective voice that could be grounded in a material reality. A close reading of the text appears to confirm the existence of a parodic view of both historical and feminist discourses. The mock-dramatic quality of Moi Tituba's expression of her desire for representation generates yet other levels of irony. The text's use of irony is central to preserving the illegibility of its position in relation to different discourses that are likely to shape its reception. The terms that Tituba uses to describe 'les invisibles' serve as significant pointers to the types of possibility that accompany this type of 'community'.
