Cette étude comparative des œuvres d’Edouard Glissant et de Derek Walcott examine le devenir de la littérature antillaise ainsi que l’évolution des littératures dites postcoloniales.A partir des notions critiques d’esthétique, de politique, de culture et de stratégie discursive, nous avons examiné les œuvres de Glissant et celles de Walcott selon une perspective historique. En effet, la question de la place de l’Histoire étroitement liée à l’expérience personnelle des auteurs est au cœur des textes. Ils mettent en avant l’odyssée d’une Histoire antillaise marginale et fantasmée qui cherche à se frayer un chemin et concurrencer une Histoire traditionnelle.De cette tension, se dégage un jeu de dualité où continuités et ruptures, résistance et appropriation du discours de l’Occident constituent au fil de l’étude un trait distinctif de l’approche des textes. Mais ce qui en montre l’intérêt et l’originalité, c’est leur capacité à s’ériger comme un exposé représentatif du monde contemporain. La question de l’Histoire va au-delà du parcours colonial du monde occidental et le discours qui s’en rattache est loin d’une dénonciation ou l’expression d’une culpabilité et encore moins celle des bienfaits de la colonisation. Les auteurs appellent en revanche à l’expression d’une vision fragmentée de l’Histoire dont l’approche se situe dans la reconnaissance de la diversité des représentations historiques, littéraires et culturelles. Qu’il s’agisse d’épopées, de récits de vie, de chroniques historiques ou politiques, de simples anecdotes ou de réflexions philosophiques qui ponctuent le vaste champ de leur production, Walcott et Glissant apportent un souffle nouveau à la pensée postcoloniale et prolongent son avenir. Ensemble, ils communiquent, échangent et s’opposent parfois pour faire apparaître des procédés conceptuels et méthodologiques qui permettent d’appréhender autrement la littérature, les sciences humaines et sociales. / This comparative study of the works of Edouard Glissant and Derek Walcott examines the development of postcolonial literatures especially west indies literature.Based on the critical notions of aesthetic, political, cultural and discursive strategy, we assessed the works of authors through a historical perspective. Indeed, the question of the place of history and personal experience is at the heart of the texts. The authors highlight the fantasised odyssey of a marginal Caribbean History which is trying to make its way and to be in competition with a traditional History.From this tension, emerges a set of duality where continuities and ruptures, resistance and appropriation of the discourse of the West are honoured hallmark of this works. However, what shows interest and originality, is their ability to establish themselves as a functional presentation of the contemporary world. The question of history goes beyond the colonial path of the Western world, hence the discourse that is coming from it isn’t relegated to complaint or quest of guilt and even less of the benefits of colonization. On the contrary, the authors call the expression of a fragmented view of History. Whether epics of life story, historical or political columns, simple stories or philosophical reflections that punctuate the vast field of production, Walcott and Glissant give new impetus to the postcolonial thinking and extend its future. Together, they communicate, interact and sometimes clash to reveal the conceptual and methodological processes that allow us to understand literature in antoher way, humanities and social sciences.

<p>This essay deals with the post-colonial crisis of identity in Michelle Cliff’s novels <i>Abeng</i> and <i>No Telephone to Heaven</i>, more specifically, the perception of “self” experienced by people in, and from, the former British colonies in the West-Indies. The essential aspect in this context is <i>place</i>. Place in post-colonial literature does not simply denote a geographical locale. Apart from the physical surroundings, place also represents a non-material environment which comprises, inter alia, sounds and scents, legends and beliefs, manners and customs. In fact, there are places which are only spiritually present in people’s lives. Even so, they have a considerable impact on the individuals’ sense of selfhood.</p><p>I argue that <i>place</i> acts as a catalyst for the protagonists’ development of self and is central to their search for identity. By exploring the various facets of place, I will show what effects this multi-layered concept in post-colonial literature has on the characters.</p>

This essay deals with the post-colonial crisis of identity in Michelle Cliff’s novels Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven, more specifically, the perception of “self” experienced by people in, and from, the former British colonies in the West-Indies. The essential aspect in this context is place. Place in post-colonial literature does not simply denote a geographical locale. Apart from the physical surroundings, place also represents a non-material environment which comprises, inter alia, sounds and scents, legends and beliefs, manners and customs. In fact, there are places which are only spiritually present in people’s lives. Even so, they have a considerable impact on the individuals’ sense of selfhood. I argue that place acts as a catalyst for the protagonists’ development of self and is central to their search for identity. By exploring the various facets of place, I will show what effects this multi-layered concept in post-colonial literature has on the characters.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

No description available.

This study delineates the domestic architecture of the early colonial period in the American tropics in the first group of British colonies that survived. In 1624, the English made their first permanent settlement on St. Christopher in the Caribbean, then expanded to the neighboring islands of Nevis, Antigua and Montserrat. Of particular interest to this research was what the architecture would reveal regarding how the first settlers adapted to the new island environment, its geography, resources, climate, and people, in the first 100 years. The research involved the examination of manuscripts of the period in archives and collections in the UK, USA and Caribbean. The historical data accumulated was primarily inventories and brief descriptions of houses, business correspondence and a small number of official maps. A key resource was a document listing the losses of buildings and possessions suffered as a result of French raids in 1705-1706. The study views the recorded items not as losses, but instead as proof of what once existed, almost as newly found "treasure", and analyzes the items both qualitatively and quantitatively in order to reveal a clearer picture of daily life for the settlers, from modest farmers to wealthier land owners. The study identified house types, stylistic trends in the houses and their furnishing, patterns of use, and construction methods. The architecture recorded the British colonists' process of adaptation to the unfamiliar environment. The study found that Leeward Islands, in the settler period of English colonization (1624-1726) there was a significant degree of interaction and exchange between the Amerindian and British peoples. In addition, it found correlations with rural houses in the wider American tropical region.

This thesis examines the impact of disease and mortality on the Royal Navy in the West Indies from 1770 to 1806. It also investigates the navy’s medical branch which was established to manage the care of sick seamen. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis produces a cohesive understanding of how disease and mortality affected the navy’s presence in the West Indies and the ways in which the navy attempted to mitigate their impact. This thesis explores various aspects of naval medicine including the history of the Sick and Hurt Board, the diseases which distressed seamen, the medicines distributed by the navy, the key personnel who were integral in generating changes to the medical system and the development of hospital facilities. Largely based on Admiralty records including correspondence and minutes from the Sick and Hurt Board, ships’ muster books and surgeons’ journals, this thesis investigates the most prevalent diseases in the West Indies and the prescribed treatments advocated by the navy. It then examines how these diseases and treatments affected seamen on board ships in that region through a quantitative analysis; then focuses on a number of the integral naval personnel who ushered in sweeping changes to naval medicine; and explores the navy’s increasing desire to transition from hired sick quarters to purpose-built naval hospitals on various West Indies islands. It concludes with a case study of the development of Antigua naval hospital which demonstrates the effectiveness of these facilities in convalescing sick seamen. Through a quantitative analysis of ships’ muster books, this thesis argues that the levels of sickness and mortality in the navy in the West Indies during the late eighteenth century are largely exaggerated in historical studies while also discrediting the myth that those islands were the ‘white man’s graveyard’ for many naval personnel. By surveying over 100,000 seamen on board ships in that region, sickness and mortality figures emerge which indicate that, on average, less than 4 per cent of seamen were on the sick list at any given time and only a small percentage died, meaning that the majority remained on active duty. This thesis then argues that many of the changes to the navy’s medical system that facilitated such low percentages were primarily instigated by surgeons, physicians and captains who identified beneficial medicines and championed their general distribution among the entire fleet. By looking at these aspects of naval medicine through a multidisciplinary lens rather than a purely administrative one, it is possible to understand the true state of health of British seamen in the West Indies during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

Les Antilles françaises constituent un contexte qui est à appréhender sous les différents traits qui les caractérisent : une approche géologique et géographique, historique et économique, géopolitique ou encore, ethnique et linguistique, culturelle et magico-religieuse. Une prégnance émane de ce lieu et se fait ressentir dans les arts plastiques : le fragment et le manque.Les démarches de six artistes, concernés par cette étude, s’inscrivent dans ce contexte insulaire. Ils transposent dans leurs œuvres, selon différentes modalités, les problématiques qui préoccupent l’Archipel des Antilles. Trois artistes de la Guadeloupe : Michel Rovelas, Christian Bracy, François Piquet, et trois artistes de la Martinique : Ernest Breleur, Christian Bertin, Chantal Charron, sont étudiés, et leurs travaux analysés selon leurs données plastiques, iconiques, procédurales et sémantiques. Ces plasticiens qui prennent des libertés vis-à-vis des codes traditionnels de la représentation, abandonnent le principe d’imitation de la réalité. Ils privilégient une esthétique du fragment dont le déclencheur est la blès (blesse), l’insondable blessure historique. Le corps archipélique, à l’insulaire structure, en est l’objet et le sujet d’expression. Il est la figure métaphorique du monde créole.Ces « renifleur[s] d’existence »1 effectuent un travail de mémoire et d’identité dont les fondations résident dans une accumulation de faits tragiques et troublants : la traite, l’esclavage, la période coloniale, la départementalisation. Il s’agit d’une mémoire lacunaire que l’art tend à sonder. / The French West Indies constructs a context which has to be apprehended from different characteristics: a geological and geographical approach, as well as a historical, economic, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic, cultural and magico-religious approach. A resonance emanates from this place which is felt in the plastic arts: fragment and incompleteness.The approaches of six artists involved in this study subscribe to this insular context. They transpose into their works, according to different modalities, the problems that concern the French West Indies archipelago. Three artists from Guadeloupe: Michel Rovelas, Christian Bracy, François Piquet, and three artists from Martinique: Ernest Breleur, Christian Bertin, Chantal Charron, are studied, and their work analyzed according to their plastic arts, iconic, procedural and semantic information.These plastic artists, who take liberties with respect to the traditional codes of representation, abandon the principle of imitation of reality. They favor an aesthetic of “the fragment” whose generator is “la blès” (wound), the unfathomable historical wound. The archipelagic body, with an insular structure is the object and the subject of expression. It is the metaphorical figure of the Creole world.These “searchers of existence”1 perform a work of memory and identity whose foundations lie in an accumulation of tragic and disturbing facts: slave trade, slavery, the colonial period and departmentalization. It is therefore an incomplete memory that art tends to grasp.

Cette thèse a pour but de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de la tuberculose (TB) et desmycobactéries non-tuberculeuses dans la Caraïbe. La tuberculose a hanté l’humanité depuisplusieurs millénaires et reste de nos jours une des maladies infectieuses faisant le plus de victimeschaque année (1,5 millions de décès en 2013). La connaissance de l’épidémiologie de la tuberculoseest essentielle afin de concevoir des programmes de lutte anti-TB adaptés aux spécificitésrégionales et donc plus efficaces. Dans cette optique, la première partie de ce travail fourni un suivià long-terme de la résistance aux antituberculeux observée en Guadeloupe, Martinique et Guyanefrançaise ainsi qu’un aperçu de la diversité génétique et de la résistance aux antituberculeux dansla Caraïbe. Les données montrent une baisse graduelle de la fréquence des infections causées pardes souches résistantes parmi les nouveaux cas de TB dans les départements français d’Amérique.En ce qui concerne la Caraïbe, des différences marquées ont été observées entre les différentsterritoires, ce qui semble refléter le passé historique de cette région.La deuxième partie est consacrée à la phylogénie et l’évolution de M. tuberculosis, étudié à l’aide dedivers marqueurs génétiques comme spoligotypes, LSP, SNP et MIRU-VNTR. Les profils MIRUVNTR(format 12-loci) ont été étudiés afin de déterminer leur utilité comme marqueurphylogénétique. Il a été montré que ce marqueur est adapté pour retracer la phylogénie ducomplexe M. tuberculosis et que la précision du classement basé sur les MIRUs est supérieure àcelle du classement basé sur les spoligotypes. De plus, la technique MIRU-VNTR permetégalement d’observer la diversification évolutive d’une souche de M. tuberculosis au cours del’infection ou alors d’identifier des patients infectés par plusieurs souches de M. tuberculosis enmême temps. Les deux phénomènes ont été observés au cours de ce travail de thèse et les casconcernés sont décrits dans ce deuxième chapitre.Enfin, un premier aperçu de la diversité des mycobactéries non-tuberculeuses isolées desprélèvements cliniques en Guadeloupe, Martinique et Guyane est présenté dans la troisième partiede ce travail. Des différences marquées dans la fréquence d’isolement de certaines espèces ont puêtre observées entre les trois départements français d’Amérique. M. intracellulare par exemple étaitsignificativement plus abondant en Guadeloupe. Cependant l’existence d’une niche écologiquespécifique à cette île n’a pas pu être mise en évidence. La problématique de l’identification desmycobactéries non-tuberculeuses est abordée également à travers une étude rétrospective del’utilisation de hsp65-PRA pour l’identification des mycobactéries dans un laboratoire de routinemais aussi sous forme d’un travail prospectif visant à la mise en place d’un protocoled’identification de mycobactéries non-tuberculeuses avec MALDI-TOF MS. / This thesis aims at providing a better understanding of tuberculosis (TB) and non-tuberculousmycobacteria (NTM) in the Caribbean. TB is an ancient scourge of humanity and remains one ofthe deadliest infectious diseases today having claimed around 1.5 million lives in 2013.Understanding the epidemiology of TB is essential for optimizing regional TB control programs. Inthis context, the first part of this work provides long-term data on drug-resistance in Guadeloupe,Martinique and French Guiana as well as an insight in the genetic diversity and drug-resistance ofM. tuberculosis in twelve Caribbean territories. Encouragingly, the results show a gradual decreaseof drug-resistant TB in newly infected patients in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana. Onthe Caribbean level, distinct differences were observed from one territory to the next and thecurrent epidemiological landscape seems to reflect the historical past of the region.The second part addresses the phylogeny and evolution of M. tuberculosis using various geneticmarkers such as spoligotyping, large sequence polymorphism (LSP), single nucleotidepolymorphism (SNP), and MIRU-VNTRs. The suitability of 12-loci MIRU-VNTR profiles for use inphylogenetic studies was evaluated and it was found that this marker is not only able to resolvethe evolutionary relationships within the M. tuberculosis complex but also allows to achieve ahigher phylogenetic precision than spoligotyping. MIRU-VNTR also permits the identification ofon-going evolution in TB patients (in-patient microevolution) as well as mixed strain infections.Both phenomena were observed in our setting and the respective cases are described herein.Finally, a first insight in the diversity of NTM isolated from clinical specimen in Guadeloupe,Martinique and French Guiana is provided. The isolation frequency of some NTM species variedconsiderably between the three departments, the most striking example being the relativeabundance of M. intracellulare in Guadeloupe. However, no evidence of a privilegedenvironmental niche/infection source on this island could be found. Last but not least, the subjectof NTM identification is addressed in the form of a retrospective evaluation of hsp65-PRA basedidentification in a routine laboratory and in the form of a prospective study towards theimplementation of a MALDI-TOF MS based identification of NTM at the Pasteur Institute ofGuadeloupe.

No description available.