Patrick Chamoiseau was born in Fort-de France on the Antillean island of Martinique in 1953. After his studies in law in Paris and his master\u2019s degree in social economics he worked as an educator in rehabilitation projects for children in detention, first in France, later in Martinique. Inspired by his professional activities and his readings of Creole literature, Chamoiseau began to focus on the ethnological, historical, and linguistic phenomena of the Caribbean, which have become subjects and motifs of his literary work ever since.
Chamoiseau\u2019s idea of a writer, as manifest in the diversity of his oeuvre, is based on the concept of a Creole identity, and, thus, very different from the \u00bbblack identity\u00ab that forms the nucleus of Aim\u00e9 C\u00e9saire\u2019s N\u00e9gritude movement. In collaboration with Rapha\u00ebl Confiant and Jean Bernab\u00e9, Chamoiseau established in 1989 the theoretical foundations of \u00bbCreolity\u00ab in the manifesto \u00bbEloge de la cr\u00e9olit\u00e9\u00ab (1989; Eng. \u00bbIn Praise of Creolness\u00ab, 1989). Chamoiseau started his career as a writer in the 1970s with a cartoon. In 1982 he wrote the play \u00bbManman Dlo contre la f\u00e9e Carabosse\u00ab (tr: Mama Dlo against the Evil Fairy), which compares Caribbean fairy tales with narrations by Charles Perrault, and discusses contemporary cultural conflicts on the Antilles. In his first novel, \u00bbChronique des sept mis\u00e8res\u00ab (1986; Eng. \u00bbChronicle of the Seven Sorrows\u00ab, 1999) the author introduces an innovative style by blending Creole colloquial and narrative traditions with the French language, so that French-speaking readers can understand his texts, too. His successful third novel, \u00bbTexaco\u00ab (1992; Eng. \u00bbTexaco\u00ab, 1997) gained international reward. \u00bbTexaco\u00ab is a fictive family story covering three generations, told against the backdrop of the real history of the Antilles from slavery until the end of the French colonial era. In his autobiographical trilogy \u00bbAntan d\u2019enfance\u00ab (1990; Eng. \u00bbChildhood\u00ab, 1999), \u00bbChemin d\u2019\u00e9cole\u00ab (1994; \u00bbSchooldays \u00ab, 1997), and \u00bbA bout d\u2019enfance\u00ab (2005; tr: At the End of Childhood), Chamoiseau describes his young life as a \u00bbpetit n\u00e9grillon\u00ab, mixed with reflections and judgments from the writer\u2019s point of view. His latest work of prose, \u00bbLes neuf consciences du Malfini\u00ab (2009; tr: The Nine Forms of Conscience of the Malfini), is an animal fable, and an entertaining and philosophical read about a bird of prey that begins to appreciate his own being and the beauty of the world through an encounter with the hummingbird. In its lyrical style the story stresses the warning Chamoiseau and Edouard Glissant once gave: \u00bbThe absence of beauty is the sign of a threat to life itself, a call to resistance\u00ab.
Patrick Chamoiseau has received numerous literary awards, including the Prix Kl\u00e9ber Haedens, Prix Goncourt, Prix Carbet de la Cara\u00efbe and the Special Prize of the Jury RFO. The author lives in Fort-de-France.<\/p>\n
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