Anglophone and Francophone theories of creolization make claims for Caribbean cultural identity; however these theories primarily concern themselves with operations of perception between and among different cultures, language speakers, races, and classes of people. This perception occurs at the meeting point of social differences, and the theorists employ a rhetoric of metaphor and figurative language to describe it as obscured or otherwise inhibited. Ultimately, this mode of perception is homologous with the interaction between a difficult literary text and its readers. This mode becomes instantiated in literary forms such as embedded and framing narratives, temporal gaps, and indeterminate narrators. Theorists of creolization claim that obscured perception enacts a form of cultural and political resistance. However, in the novels of Patrick Chamoiseau, Erna Brodber, Jean Rhys, Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris, difficult narrative forms can instead entrench social divisions and hierarchies.
","abstract_html":"<p>Anglophone and Francophone theories of creolization make claims for Caribbean cultural identity; however these theories primarily concern themselves with operations of perception between and among different cultures, language speakers, races, and classes of people. This perception occurs at the meeting point of social differences, and the theorists employ a rhetoric of metaphor and figurative language to describe it as obscured or otherwise inhibited. Ultimately, this mode of perception is homologous with the interaction between a difficult literary text and its readers. This mode becomes instantiated in literary forms such as embedded and framing narratives, temporal gaps, and indeterminate narrators. Theorists of creolization claim that obscured perception enacts a form of cultural and political resistance. However, in the novels of Patrick Chamoiseau, Erna Brodber, Jean Rhys, Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris, difficult narrative forms can instead entrench social divisions and hierarchies.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hutchins, Jessica"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Comparative Literature","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["J. Dillon Brown"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:55Z","subjects":["caribbean","créolité","creolization","difficulty","narrative","perception"],"languages":["English (en)"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7XD0ZQR"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7XD0ZQR","href":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7XD0ZQR","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1382","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["J. Dillon Brown"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hutchins, Jessica"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-10-08T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Comparative Literature"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["caribbean","créolité","creolization","difficulty","narrative","perception"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English (en)"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1382"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7XD0ZQR"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Anglophone and Francophone theories of creolization make claims for Caribbean cultural identity; however these theories primarily concern themselves with operations of perception between and among different cultures, language speakers, races, and classes of people. This perception occurs at the meeting point of social differences, and the theorists employ a rhetoric of metaphor and figurative language to describe it as obscured or otherwise inhibited. Ultimately, this mode of perception is homologous with the interaction between a difficult literary text and its readers. This mode becomes instantiated in literary forms such as embedded and framing narratives, temporal gaps, and indeterminate narrators. Theorists of creolization claim that obscured perception enacts a form of cultural and political resistance. However, in the novels of Patrick Chamoiseau, Erna Brodber, Jean Rhys, Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris, difficult narrative forms can instead entrench social divisions and hierarchies.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Inscrutable Islands: Narrative Difficulty and the Rhetoric of Creolization in Twentieth-Century Caribbean Novels"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["J. Dillon Brown"],"dc:creator":["Hutchins, Jessica"],"dc:date.available":["2014-10-08T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Anglophone and Francophone theories of creolization make claims for Caribbean cultural identity; however these theories primarily concern themselves with operations of perception between and among different cultures, language speakers, races, and classes of people. This perception occurs at the meeting point of social differences, and the theorists employ a rhetoric of metaphor and figurative language to describe it as obscured or otherwise inhibited. Ultimately, this mode of perception is homologous with the interaction between a difficult literary text and its readers. This mode becomes instantiated in literary forms such as embedded and framing narratives, temporal gaps, and indeterminate narrators. Theorists of creolization claim that obscured perception enacts a form of cultural and political resistance. However, in the novels of Patrick Chamoiseau, Erna Brodber, Jean Rhys, Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris, difficult narrative forms can instead entrench social divisions and hierarchies.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1382"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7XD0ZQR"],"dc:language":["English (en)"],"dc:subject":["caribbean","créolité","creolization","difficulty","narrative","perception"],"dc:title":["Inscrutable Islands: Narrative Difficulty and the Rhetoric of Creolization in Twentieth-Century Caribbean Novels"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Comparative Literature"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:55Z"}