Maryse Condé. In Memoriam

The Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé (1934-2024) died yesterday. One of the maximum exponents of Caribbean literature, she completes
with Jean Rhys a curious double connection Brontë-Caribbean. As it is well known Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea as a kind of prequel of Jane Eyre. Maryse Condé wrote La Migration des Coeurs in 1995 as a retelling of Wuthering Heights. The novel was published in English in 1998 with the title Windward Heights. It is worthwhile to quote a 1999 interview in Bomb Magazine:

Rebecca Wolff : Wuthering Heights is what is known as a “classic”; I read it at least six times before I was 15. What kind of place did it have in your imagination before you retold it?

Maryse Condé There is a strong tradition of what is called literary cannibalism in the Caribbean. A lot of people have done it before me. When I read Wuthering Heights, I was 14. It was given to me at a prize ceremony for being good in writing. I read the book in September, which is rainy season in the Caribbean. I was lying on my bed in my bedroom, and for me it was an enchantment. I really was transported to wherever Emily Brontë wanted to transport me . . . and then I forgot all about it. I saw it at the cinema after that, by chance—the version with Laurence Olivier. It revived memories of my adolescence, so I read it again and discovered it had a meaning beyond the actual meaning, beyond the meanings the author wanted to give. It was a story you could transplant into any society. I was teaching a few years later and I discovered Jean Rhys, who wrote Wide Sargasso Sea, a rewriting of Jane Eyre. I thought, It’s not so bizarre that I’m attracted to Emily Brontë. Because, in fact, there is something about the Brontë sisters that speaks to Caribbean women, regardless of their color, regardless of their age, regardless of the time they live in. So I decided I was going to rewrite it. But it was at least another five years for me before I really started. Because my husband, who is English, was shocked when I was telling him my vague intention. He did not see the connection between the Caribbean and Brontë’s work. It seemed blasphemy to him to rewrite Brontë’s masterpiece. So I took another five years to decide—and when I could not help it, I started to write.

RW Blasphemy!

MC But I totally understand. It is such a masterpiece, such a beloved work in England. For example, when we promoted the book in England we went to the Museum at Haworth, where Emily Brontë was born. People came to listen to me but I could see when they were sitting down looking at me, there was a kind of . . . I wouldn’t say fear, but a kind of shock. What is she doing to the text? How can she dare touch that text?! I really had to convince them that I did not do any disrespect to Brontë; on the contrary, I was paying homage to her. It seems to me the greatest homage that I pay is to her artistry.