Joseph Zobel

Reviews / Votes

'Louise Hardwick's Joseph Zobel: Negritude and the Novel is a remarkable and timely examination one of the key authors of francophone postcolonial writing. With exacting scholarship and empassioned prose, Hardwick reveals the full complexity of Zobel's extensive novelistic enterprise, including the many twists and turns of the rewritings of his earlier works. [...] Hardwick's groundbreaking research reveals long-forgotten texts, biographical intricacies, and political and aesthetic debates to finally and rightfully accord Zobel recognition as one of the central and most original figures of Negritude.'
Nick Nesbitt, Princeton University 'Through settings, characterizations, and themes, Zobel's work confronts France's political and cultural grip in Martinique, giving voice to destitute blacks. Benefiting from Hardwick's translations, this is a valuable addition to the literature on postcolonialism.'
D. M. Jarrett, Choice 'It is one of the many strengths of this study that it situates that novel in its rightful relationship with the rest of Zobel's work, which includes journalism, short stories, poetry, spoken word, radio, sculpture, and painting. This meticulously researched book persuasively makes the case for Zobel as a key and necessary figure in any understanding of the evolution of Francophone Caribbean literature and culture in the twentieth century.'

Martin Munro, H-France 'This monograph, which will prove to be a catalyst for further research into postcolonial literature, should be required reading by both academics and students, and is a valuable and original contribution to the field of Caribbean studies.'
Maeva McComb, French Studies