Black Shack Alley

Description

The semiautobiographical Caribbean novel that explores shifting race relations in early twentieth-century colonial Martinique, with a foreword by Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau

A Penguin Classic

Following in the tradition of Richard Wright's Black Boy, Joseph Zobel's semiautobiographical 1950 novel Black Shack Alley chronicles the coming-of-age of José, a young boy grappling with issues of power and identity in colonial Martinique. As José transitions from childhood to young adulthood and from rural plantations to urban Fort-de-France on a quest for upward mobility, he bears witness to and struggles against the various manifestations of white supremacy, both subtle and overt, that will alter the course of his life. His ally in this struggle is his grandmother, M'man Tine, who fights her own weariness to release at least one child from the plantation village, a dirt street lined with the shacks of sugarcane workers. Zobel's masterpiece, the basis for the award-winning film Sugar Cane Alley directed by Euzhan Palcy, is a powerful testament to twentieth-century life in Martinique, with a foreword by award-winning Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau.

About the Author

Zobel’s writing centered the rural poverty of colonial Martinique, the harsh conditions of the plantation system, and the life of the working-class poor. His friendship and engagement with other literary figures provided support and inspiration for his own writing and travels. Aimé Césaire, for example, encouraged him to write a novel, thus providing the impetus for Zobel’s Diab-là (written 1942 but published in 1946). Later, acting upon fellow writer Léopold Sédar Senghor’s suggestion that he experience African life, Zobel moved to Africa, living in Casamance and Dakar, where he was inspired to write Si la mer n’était pas bleue (1982) and Mas Badara (1983). Worldwide fame arrived in 1983 with Martinican director Euzhan Palcy’s film version of his award-winning La Rue Cases Nègres, which won 17 international awards, including a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.Some of Zobel’s other works include Laghia de la mort (1946), Incantation pour un retour au pays natal (1964), Les Mains pleines d’oiseaux (1978), Quand la neige aura fondu (1979), Poèmes de moi-même (1984), Poèmes d’amour et de silence (1994), Le soleil m’a dit… (2002), and Gertal et autres nouvelles (2002).Zobel is remembered as a gracious, if reluctant celebrity, but mostly as a writer who understood the framework and impact of colonialism, and who both understood and transcended poverty. The school in his home town of Rivière-Salée is now named after him, Lycée Joseph Zobel.

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