French Guiana (France) / All works
Novel
Atipa
Not translated into English
Alfred Parépou · 1885
Synopsis
Atipa, a former slave turned gold-panner, a man of little schooling but a philosopher at times, talks with everyone he meets: at the market, at a friend's house over a dish, at a candidate in the elections, at the ball. In twelve chapters made up of conversations in Creole, he sings the beauty of the country, its customs and its language, mocks the indolence of his people in the face of assimilation and distrusts the gold rush. The book has little plot: it describes a world, in a tone now pleasant, now satirical.
Context
The book appeared in Paris in 1885 from Auguste Ghio, entirely in Creole and without translation. In his preface, the author warns that it is not French, says he wrote for his compatriots alone and complains of the printers, unable to set Creole. The linguist Hugo Schuchardt praised it in 1894, then the book was forgotten until 1949. Michel Lohier translated it into French (1980), then Marguerite Fauquenoy (1987). The title and the pseudonym name a fish and a palm that go into the awara broth, an emblematic dish of the country.
Who it is for
A narrative of conversations, without any real plot; it is read in a bilingual edition, the Creole of 1885 requiring the translation on the facing page.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first novel written in a Creole language, it helped win recognition for Guianese Creole as a language in its own right.
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