Suzanne Lacascade

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Suzanne Lacascade
Lacascade in 1956 in the garden of the Hôtel Mezzara
Lacascade in 1956 in the garden of the Hôtel Mezzara
Born(1884-03-31)31 March 1884
Fort-de-France, Martinique, French West Indies
Died28 January 1966(1966-01-28) (aged 81)
15th arrondissement of Paris, France
Resting placePère Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
Alma materSorbonne University
Notable worksClaire-Solange, âme Africaine (1924)
Notable awardsMontyon Prize (1925)

Rose Joséphine Suzanne Lacascade (31 March 1884 – 28 January 1966) was a Martiniquais writer, who became one of the first non-white authors to publish in France. She was awarded the Montyon Prize for her only novel, Claire-Solange, âme Africaine (1924).

Early life and family

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Lacascade was born on 31 March 1884 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, French West Indies.[1][2] She had seven siblings.[3]

Lacascade's father, Théodore Lacascade [fr] (1841–1906), was a free man of colour who was the son of an enslaved Guadeloupean (freed in 1838).[1][3] He trained at the École de Santé de la Marine, was elected Deputy of Guadeloupe then Governor of Tahiti and sat in the Martiniquais National Assembly.[1][4]

Lacascade studied a degree in Literature at Sorbonne University in Paris, France, graduating in 1904.[1]

Writing

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After graduating from the Sorbonne, Lacascade worked as a tutor and wrote for the newspaper Les Veillées des chaumières.[1]

Lacascade's novel, Claire-Solange, âme Africaine, was published in 1924 and was awarded the 1925 Montyon Prize.[5][6] The work was dedicated by Lacascade "to my African ancestor mothers, to my Creole grandmothers."[7]

The novel explores themes of colonialism, colourism, imperial politics, marginalisation, objectification, the dominance of men over women, "race mixing," and the authors own feelings of racial étrangeté, through the life of protagonist Claire Solange, a light-skinned black woman from Martinique.[8][9] Her mother is a deceased black woman,[10] and in the novel Solange travels to France with her white colonial officer father to meet his extended family.[11] Solange shocks her relations by deconstructing their racialised view of Christianity and by pointing out that Jesus would not have been white.[12] Solange also praises her African matrilineal ancestors instead of her European patrilineal ancestors, promoting maternal bonds and black womanhood.[9]

When World War I breaks out, the novel praises French Antillean soldiers who fight in Europe as equal to white soldiers and Solange becomes a patriotic nurse.[9][12] There is a reversal of the "white saviour" narrative in the novel, with Solange saving then becoming engaged to a white man, her second cousin Jacques Danzel.[3][13]

Death and legacy

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Lacascade died on 28 January 1966 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, France, aged 81.[14] By the time of her death, she lived in anonymity.[15] She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.[15]

Maryse Condé has been credited with rediscovering Lacascadde and her work.[16] Lacascade's novel was republished in 2019.[14][17][18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Suzanne Lacascade Biographie". Fondation pour la memoire de l'esclavage (in French). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  2. ^ Joncart, Clothilde (18 February 2022). "Trois écrivaines antillaises que vous devriez connaitre". Urbania.fr (in French). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Couti, Jacqueline (15 October 2021). Sex, Sea, and Self: Sexuality and Nationalism in French Caribbean Discourses, 1924-1948. Liverpool University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-80085-726-1.
  4. ^ "Claire-Solange, par Suzanne Lacascade". Extrême-Asie (in French). 1 July 1925. p. 4. Retrieved 29 September 2025 – via RetroNews.fr.
  5. ^ Favier, Olivier (15 July 2020). "Suzanne Lacascade, aux origines féminines de la négritude". RFI (in French). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  6. ^ "Suzanne LACASCADE". Académie française (in French). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  7. ^ Sharpley-Whiting, T. D. (2002). Negritude Women. University of Minnesota Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-8166-3679-2.
  8. ^ Orlando, Valérie (1 January 2003). Of Suffocated Hearts and Tortured Souls: Seeking Subjecthood Through Madness in Francophone Women's Writing of Africa and the Caribbean. Lexington Books. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-0-7391-0563-4.
  9. ^ a b c Germain, Félix; Larcher, Silyane (1 October 2018). Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848-2016. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 131–134. ISBN 978-1-4962-0127-0.
  10. ^ Ojo-Ade, Femi (1996). Being Black, Being Human: More Essays on Black Culture. Obafemi Awolowo University Press Limited. p. 155. ISBN 978-978-136-112-8.
  11. ^ Caribbean Quarterly. Extra Mural Department of the University College of the West Indies. 1981. p. 31.
  12. ^ a b Dize, Nathan H. (12 November 2015). "La Mulâtresse During the Two Worlds Wars: Race, Gender and Sexuality in Suzanne Lacascade's Claire Solange âme Africaine and Mayotte Capécia's Je suis Martiniquaise". In Larrier, Renée; Alidou, Ousseina (eds.). Writing through the Visual and Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 308–310. ISBN 979-8-216-29406-1.
  13. ^ Thielmann, Pia (2004). Hotbeds: Black-white Love in Novels from the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean. Kachere Series. p. 281. ISBN 978-99908-76-23-9.
  14. ^ a b Rosillette, Jean-Mary. "Écrivain martiniquais - Suzanne Lacascade". Martiniqueannu.com (in French). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  15. ^ a b "Cimetière du Père Lachaise - APPL - LACASCADE Suzanne (1884-1966)". Cimetière du Père Lachaise - APPL. 18 March 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  16. ^ Condé, Maryse P. (1995). "Language and Power: Words as Miraculous Weapons". CLA Journal. 39 (1): 18–25. ISSN 0007-8549.
  17. ^ "Claire-Solange, âme africaine". Fondas Kreyol (in French). 4 February 2022. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  18. ^ Triay, Philippe (12 May 2020). "Réédition de "Claire-Solange, âme africaine", premier roman publié par une femme antillaise, Suzanne Lacascade, en 1924". Outre-mer la 1ère (in French). Retrieved 29 September 2025.