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Windward Heights
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Wikipedia article
'Windward Heights' ('La migration des coeurs') is a novel by Maryse Cond, written in French and first published in 1995 by Robert Laffont. The English translation, by Cond's husband Richard Philcox, was first published in 1998. The novel is a reworking of 'Wuthering Heights' set in Cuba and Guadeloupe at the turn of the twentieth century.
Title
In French, the novel is entitled 'La Migration des curs' (literally 'the migration of the hearts'). Speaking in 2016 to Franoise Pfaff, Cond explained the title thus: "J'ai vu dans ce titre une manire d'exprimer que l'histoire se rptait; il y avait une premire gnration avec Cathy qui tait aime par Razy et par de Linsseuil et une deuxime gnration avec Cathy II, fille de Cathy, aime par Premier-n" ("I saw in this title a way of expressing how history repeats itself; there was a first generation with Cathy who was loved both by Razy and by de Linsseuil, and a second generation with Cathy II, daughter of Cathy, loved by Premier-n").PFAFF, Franoise, Nouveaux entretiens avec Maryse Cond: crivaine et tmoin de son temps, Paris, ditions Karthala, 2016 p. 122.
Style
In the original, 'Windward Heights' is predominantly written in standard French, but characteristed by Cond's characteristic blending of French with Guadeloup creole, with no explication for the reader. Cond, opposed to thinking of the French language as immutable, has likewise opposed the idea that a ready distinction can be drawn between standard French and creole. In a 2016 interview, she argued that "Il n'y pas le franais. Il y a le franais de Proust, de Chateaubriand, de Maryse Cond. J'ai dit clairement par la suite: 'Je n'cris ni en franais, ni en crole, j'cris en Maryse Cond.' C'tait une rponse aux angoisses que j'avais connues d'utiliser une langue qui ne m'appartient pas. Le franais et le crole appartiennent ceux qui les utilisent" ("There is no French. There is the French of Proust, of Chateaubriand, of Maryse Cond. I have said clearly later: "I do not write neither in French nor in Creole, I write in Maryse Cond.' It was a response to the anxieties I had to use a language that does not belong to me. French and Creole belong to those who use them").PFAFF, Franoise, Nouveaux entretiens avec Maryse Cond: crivaine et tmoin de son temps, Paris, ditions Karthala, 2016, p. 64.
Examples include:
* "Il lui traitait comme un jouet. Il lui appartenait, avec toutes les qualits des gros mots, les biguines les plus obscnes. Il se tordait le voir danser en fretillant du 'bonda' ou en pointant son sexe. Il l'encourageait se dguiser en 'mas' kongo' ou en 'mas' goudron'."COND, Maryse, La migration des curs, Paris, ditions Robert Laffont, 1995, p. 29.
* "Elle se levait en fredonnant tel ou tel air de biguine. C'taient des 'Ban mwen an ti bo ou des Doudou ki jou? pas jodi la'!"
* "Justin se tourna vers Razy et lui cria comme un chien: 'Dro! Dro, mwen di-w! Mache'!"
* Ce procd relve d'une volont de "dpayser le lecteur qui se rappelle que c'est une histoire guadeloupenne travers les sons, les mtaphores, les images."PFAFF, Franoise, Nouveaux entretiens avec Maryse Cond: crivaine et tmoin de son temps, Paris, ditions Karthala, 2016, p. 133.
Summary
'Windward Heights' was inspired by Emily Bront's 'Wuthering Heights', and Cond has described the work as a homage to Bront. It transposes the Yorkshire moors in the island of Guadeloupe. Thus, she retains the characters of Cathy and Heathcliffe (who becomes Razy) but transposes them into a Creole identity. The Linton family becomes the "De Linsseuil" family, who live on the Belles-Feuilles estate (and no longer Thrushcross Grange as in English), and the Earnshaw family becomes the Gagneur family who inhabit the Engoulevent estate (like Wuthering Heights in English). As a result, 'The Migration of Hearts' can be considered a postcolonial rewriting.
The novel comprises forty-one chapters and is divided into five parts which each represent one of the islands (Cuba, Basse-Terre, Marie-Galante, Roseau) where the story takes place.
Maryse Cond remains faithful to Bront's novel by telling the story of Razy's revenge on the Linnseuil family. But, unlike Bronte's story, Conde makes sure that Cathy and Razy have a child, Cathy II. The secret of this liaison is always kept and it is because of this that Cathy II and Razy II marry: driven by an inexplicable love, they are attracted to each other. As a result of their affair, they also have a child, a little girl named Anthuria.
Razy II and Cathy II take refuge in Roseau and it is only after the death of Cathy II that Razy II returns to the Engoulevent estate with his daughter.
Main characters
* Anthuria: daughter of Cathy II and Razy II. This character does not exist in Bront's text.* Aymeric: husband of Cathy, taking on the character of Bront's Egar Linton.
* Cathy: the lover of Razy. Often characterized as a wild girl by her family, she is married to Aymeric. She is Cathy in Bront's text and nicknamed "Man Razy", which is Creole for "Mrs. Razy", in Cond's text.
* Cathy II: daughter of Cathy and Razy, the wife of Razy II.
* Irmine Linsseuil: wife of Razy, taking on the character of Isabel Linton in the text of Bront.
* Justin-Marie: Gegneur's child, he takes over Hindley's character in Bronte's text.
* Razy: a child found by Hubert Gagneur, but considered natural child in Cond's text. He takes on the character of Heathcliff in the English novel. Cond selected Razy's name as a wild plant of Guadeloupe, echoing how the name 'Heathcliff' alludes to the Yorkshire Moors in England.
* Razy II, or Premier-n ('firstborn'): child of Razy and his wife, Irmine Linsseuil. He is the husband of Cathy II, who is also his half sister.
Inspirations
Alongside 'Wuthering Heights', Cond has invoked the work of Jean Rhys as an inspiration, particular her 'Wide Sargasso Sea' (based on 'Jane Eyre').PFAFF, Franoise, Nouveaux entretiens avec Maryse Cond: crivaine et tmoin de son temps, Paris, ditions Karthala, 2016, p. 123.
Further reading
* BAHSOUN, Jihad, Rcriture et cration dans La migration des curs de Maryse Cond, Paris, lHarmattan, collections : Critiques Littraires, 2016.
* COLLINS, Holly, "Towards a Brave New World : Tracing the Emergence of Creolization in Maryse Conds Canonical Rewritings", Women in French Studies, vol. 23, 2015, p. 69-84.
* FRATTA, Carla, "Conjectures sur la gense de La migration des curs de Maryse Cond", Francofonia, N61, 2011, p. 163-172.
* FOURNIER-GUILLEMETTE, Rosemarie, "(Dis)jonctions du postmoderne et du postcolonial dans la rcriture. La migration des curs de Maryse Cond et Wuthering Heights dEmily Bront", Figura, N26, 2011, p. 41-57.
* FUMAGALLI, Maria Cristina, "Maryse Conds La migration des curs, Jean Rhys Wide Sargassos Sea, and (the possibility of) Creolization", The journal of Caribbean Literatures, Fall 2005, vol. 4, p. 195-213.
* LIONNET, Franoise, "Narrating the Americas : Transcolonial Mtissage and Maryse Conds La migration des curs", Women in French Studies, special issue, 2003, p. 46-64.
* MALENA, Anne, "Migration littraires : Maryse Cond et Emily Bront", TTR : traduction, terminologie, rdaction, vol. 13, n2, 2000, p. 47-74.
* MOUSSARON, Victoria Bridges, "A cahier of (Un)spoken Testimony : Maryse Cond and La migration des curs", The Journal of Haitian Studies, vol. 16, N1, 2010, p. 165-177.
* PFAFF, Franoise, Nouveaux entretiens avec Maryse Cond: crivaine et tmoin de son temps, Paris, ditions Karthala, 2016.
References
Category:1995 novels
Category:Novels set in the Caribbean
Category:Postcolonial novels
Category:Works based on Wuthering Heights
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