Writing Against the Tide? Patrick Chamoiseau's (Is) Land Imaginary

This article examines an apparent paradox at the heart of Chamoiseau's work: a postmodern embrace of diaspora and mobility and, simultaneously, a resolutely local and island-based agenda. She identifies a fault line between his theory ( essays, interviews, and especially his collaborative ventures with Glissant) and his fiction, which remains resolutely trained on Martinique. This supposed " insularity" has meant that his fiction has been read as a nostalgic lament for an idealized past. Rather than fetishizing the past, McCusker suggests instead that his island-centredness allows Chamoiseau to engage more profoundly with the histories of slavery. Increasingly, indeed, the underground functions as a powerful alternative to the surface, and superficial, spaces of historical and cultural amnesia explored in earlier novels.