ABSTRACT
Maryse Condé’s questions draw our attention to the ongoing debate about the meaning of Creole identity and Creole culture. Thousands of emigrants from islands in the Caribbean – even rather removed ones – have to face the problem of identification and demarcation every day. Does the young novelist Edwidge Danticat, who left the Caribbean, grew up in the USA and publishes in English, still represent Haiti? She tells stories about Haitians, about a Haitian girl in New York and also about the Haitian massacre in the Dominican Republic. Her decision to write in English instead of French or Kreyòl separates her from other Caribbean authors. Nevertheless, she is still a Caribbean – though one with a new perspective, as she is able to identify problems with the objectivity of a distant view, problems which are often unchallenged by people on the islands. Both perspectives represent Caribbean culture, each being one of multiple versions.
