Maryse Condé has died at the age of 90, as communicated by her husband Richard Philcox toFrance Media Agency. News that profoundly shocked the world of literature, of which she was a great protagonist, even though she started publishing later than other authors.
In Condé’s writing there was an entire world: that of black identities, of slavery, of a colonialist past that left enormous consequences behind it. The newspaper Liberation he defined it the “pen of black pride”. “I think the world belongs to me and that I have the right to write about everything that worries or amuses me,” the writer said in an interview.
Maryse Condé, winner of the “alternative” Nobel Prize
For many fervent writers and literature enthusiasts, the writer originally from Guadeloupe absolutely deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. Yet this recognition it was never assigned to her.
The reason, however, is not linked to her works or to any shortcomings on the part of the writer. In 2018 the Swedish Academy was overwhelmed by a scandal, due to the serious accusations of assault and sexual violence made by some women against the husband of a former juror, the photographer and director Jean-Claude Arnault, and it is for this reason that in that year the prize was exceptionally suspended.
To compensate for this lack, the New Academy of Stockholm decided to establish an “alternative” Nobel, awarding it to Maryse Condé on 12 October of the same year because “in her works, with precise language (…) describes the ravages of colonialism and the chaos of post-colonialism“. The author and activist had commented on the recognition with these words: “I am very happy and proud to receive this award, but allow me to share it with my family, with my friends and above all with all the people of Guadeloupe (…) who will be moved and happy to see me rewarded.”
Maryse Condé’s career between writing and activism
Born in 1937Maryse Condé turned 90 on February 11, 2024. She passed away on the night between April 1 and 2, 2024, as communicated by her husband Richard Philcox to‘France Media Agency and reported by the main French newspapers, among them Liberation.
Maryse Condé era originally from Pointe-à-Pitre, in the Guadeloupe archipelagoand had behind her a career that over the last fifty years had led her to be considered among the most important authors of Franco-Caribbean literature, as well as an activist and chronicler of the struggles and triumphs of the descendants of Africans brought as slaves to the Caribbean.
Condé left the world thirty novels on this theme, as well as plays and essays, many of which aimed at new generations. You had published your first book later than other colleagues – you were already 40 years old – while the last one in chronological order dates back to 2017, The Fabulous and Sad Destiny of Ivan and Ivana. After that job she was forced to retire, increasingly affected by a degenerative disease who had recently confined her to a wheelchair.
Maryse Condé had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, then living in several countries including Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ghana. It was there that she found great inspiration, but above all it was there that she had rediscovered it “the pride of being black”, as she herself told. She is widely appreciated in the academic sphere, she in the United States of America she has spent almost two whole decades, teaching in some of the most prestigious universities.
He was never afraid to use words like “race”, “slavery”, “colonialism”, “sexism”. The youngest of eight children, raised in a family in which talking about slavery was almost taboo, she gave voice to a world that existed and to issues that are more relevant than ever.
“The most important thing for a writer is to find his own voice that challenges the reader who, in turn, recognizes it. MIt took me years to forge my voice: a mixture of humour, hyperrealism and more or less imaginative transformations – he said in an interview with Corriere della Sera -. I think the writer is free to draw inspiration from wherever he wants. Violating this freedom is a serious crime. So, coming from a small entity like Guadeloupe, I should only talk about certain topics. In reverse, I think the world belongs to me and that I have the right to write about anything that worries or amuses me“.
2024-04-02 13:46:00
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