Caribbean Culture Class to Present Folktale Carnaval on Dec. 4

A Fairmont State University class studying Caribbean culture will present a Folktale Carnaval on Thursday, Dec. 4, in the Multi-media Room A of the Ruth Ann Musick Library. The event will include two folktale performances from “Creole Folktales” by Patrick Chamoiseau, as well as music, images and refreshments.

The event will consist of two separate readings on Dec. 4, with “A Pumpkin Seed” beginning at 12:30 p.m., and “Madame Kéléman” and “The Rainmaker” beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

Students aim to share the joy of storytelling through the cultural context of the Francophone Caribbean.  “Creole Folktales” was published first in the U.S. in 1997. Chamoiseau, the 1992 winner of France's Goncourt Prize, retells 12 tales from his home island of Martinique. Chamoiseau has been well received by the literary community with glowing reviews such as appeared in The New York Times, “Chamoiseau is a writer of exceptional and original gifts whose prose is saturated with a kind of bemused gorgeousness, fermented in a broth of unexpected juxtapositions.”  

In the “Caribbean Culture” class, students also read works by Aimé Césaire from Martinique and Maryse Condé from Guadeloupe to understand how the Caribbean region is globally connected and has particular local contexts.

 

College of Liberal ArtsCaribbean CultureRuth Ann Musick LibraryFrench