Tennessen


Creole alludes, it seems to me, to its rebellious nature.
It is very clear that French in the Caribbean region
continues to enjoy higher prestige vis-a-vis Creole,
yet I think it is equally clear that Creole is a
signifying practice which, on another level, actively
seeks to remain subversive. Furthermore, it proceeds
in this endeavor by adhering to certain principles which,
as I have tried to show, obey the rule of seduction.
The result is a language which, in very subtle ways,
denounces and confounds the foreign language, French,
being imposed. Creole marks, in West Indian societies,
a veritable seizure of power, however fleeting, by those
who, for four centuries now, have been refused the right
to speak and be heard.

 To recapitulate briefly, then, Creole resists the
authority of French and of France through the use of a
number of specific devices or strategies. Inversion, or
reversal, of meaning is one of these. The process is not
so much a replacing of old meanings with new ones but
rather, as I have said, a way of playing on the ambiguity
in the words themselves. Thus, it is not just a problem
of contending with an alternate meaning--Creole opens
up the possibility of multiple meanings, virtually
meaning without end. Carried to the extreme, the words
become, paradoxically, emptied of meaning altogether, as
in the case of Haitian language. Wit and excess are two
other disruptive elements present in Creole talk and
folklore. Creole stories tell of measureless bounty
and recount delicious acts of imprudence. Jokes, on
the other hand, present a humbler front, yet they too
are far from innocent.

 In the proceeding pages I have dealt with only a
few of the ways in which Creole speech refuses to accept
the status of French as "official" language and as the
sole transmitter of a respectable and universal culture.
A lengthier study would surely uncover many more such
strategies. For the moment, though, let us merely say
that it is the little word, the "ti parole," which
bears watching. A few of these little words put together,
says the Creole proverb, can easily turn into a big deal,
literally, a "grand affair." Or perhaps we should say
grand seduction--discursive, that is.