Chris Villemarette
Dr. Helen Lock
English 426
3 October 2002
I, Tituba's Postmodern Technique as Historical Subversion
	In I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, Maryse Condé uses various techniques such as anachronism, parody and/or pastiche.  Ann Armstrong Scarboro, in the afterword of the novel, refers to the work as "postmodern fiction" (213).  An analysis of the work's postmodern elements is relevant, especially in the terms of Frederic Jameson's view of postmodernism.  In Jameson's view, historical subversion in the era of postmodernism is difficult because of its sterilizing effect on parody and irony.  However, he does believe that the possibility exists for new works of art to be political.  He says, in his book Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, that if postmodernism is to have significant political meaning, it must take into consideration a way to allow the reader to obtain a new sense of the world, not only as far as society goes, but also in the geography of the mind, as well as the geography of the world itself.  Jameson is quoted as referring to the concept of utilizing totality in an effective way as forming a new "cognitive map" that is required to activate the political potential latent in postmodernism (Mostern 173).  To say that I, Tituba fully accomplishes this is perhaps an overstatement; however, the techniques employed by Condé are at least a step in this direction.   
One could argue that the novel is not a postmodern fiction, of course.  For example, Mara L. Dukats claims in the article "The Hybrid Terrain of Literary Imagination" that Condé's style in I, Tituba "is not so much a technique of postmodernist fiction or magical realism as it is the assertion of the extent and duration of confinement and the surreal efforts necessary to move out of voicelessness" (52).  However, according to Kenneth Mostern, in "Framing the Margins: The Social Logic of Postmodern Culture," "all theory, however critical it may be of the dominant culture, is already postmodern, since it too finds its meaning in the context of this specific mode of cultural production" (168).  In other words, because many critics see the current view of the use of certain techniques as "postmodern," the postmodern aspects of the novel cannot be dismissed.  Therefore, Jamesonian theory is appropriate for analyzing I, Tituba, especially because of the postmodern techniques it uses.  
Mostern argues that the Jamesonian perspective is relevant when looking at "ethnic studies" because "Jameson argues that postmodernism is simply not quite something one can be 'for' or 'against,' since it is the current cultural dominant" (167).  Mostern helps to relate the idea of ethnic or multicultural studies to Frederic Jameson's perspective.  He brings up Jameson's point that the dominant culture is dependent upon the current global economic state, referred to as "late capitalism" (Mostern 168).  All cultures are essentially affected one way or another by multinational capitalism, which in terms of critical theory translates to all cultures being affected by postmodernism.  However, one can not necessarily make a blanket judgment on the current era; on the contrary, one must examine the implications of the present state and base criticism on that context, according to Jameson.  
As Mostern says, "In such a context, the Jamesonian narrative, in spite of its Eurocentricity, provides a necessary backdrop to the analysis of both the cultural production and reception of work that attempts to challenge the relations of power" (173).  Condé's work attempts to provide a "cognitive map" in the terms of Mostern in that she is challenging the patriarchical imperialist viewpoint with aspects of postmodernism that call into question the power struggles of those cultures which have been exploited by colonialism.  She specifically attempts to call attention to the similar situation in the present-day United States, thereby bringing the politicizing of the text into current relevance.  She blends specific times and places of historical validity with a style that tries to subvert postmodern techniques by using them to empower a voiceless character of history.
Although Dukats does not agree that Condé is necessarily using postmodern techniques in I, Tituba, the view that is had by Dukats about the work is compatible with the Jamesonian view of postmodernism.  Dukats sees the combination of many cultural ideas and techniques in the novel as a way to subvert the idea of dominant and secondary cultures.  The lines of control of one culture by another are blurred by what is referred to as "hybridity" (53).  The hybridity of cultures, in effect, creates a new understanding of global culture and breaks down borders.  However, the reason hybridity of styles is able to combat colonial thinking is because of the specific techniques that Condé uses in I, Tituba; and while Condé does not necessarily always use postmodern techniques, she uses them enough, or uses ones similar enough, that she is stepping in the direction of Jameson's idea of restructuring ideas of global culture.
Because of Condé's apparent concern for criticizing the oppressive nature of culture in the United States, African-American perception of literary criticism is relevant.  For example, Dukats uses Toni Morrison to make the point that African-American writers, due to the diasporic nature of African-American culture, did not necessarily have to be influenced by the classical Western tradition of literature, and therefore, were able to use new techniques (57).  Condé, who is also part of the African diaspora, combines all of the influences, and yet attempts to transcend them by using them to call attention to oppression, not only in the sense questioning the idea of history being written by the colonizers, but also in the sense of questioning the current state of affairs in the postcolonial world, especially, as she herself notes, in the United States (203).  Mostern also brings out a relevant quote of Toni Morrison; he uses it to introduce his article, and it is applicable to the argument that postmodernism is compatible and also a stepping stone in new directions for diasporic writers:
Black women had to deal with "postmodern" problems in the nineteenth century and 
earlier. These things had to be addressed by black people a long time ago. Certain kinds of dissolution, the loss of and the need to reconstruct certain kinds of stability. Certain kinds of madness, deliberately going mad in order, as one of the characters says in the book, "in order not to lose your mind." (167)

Therefore, the fact that Condé uses techniques that could be called postmodern validates it as a postmodern text in this view.  In her essay “Postmodern Blackness,” bell hooks writes, “Radical postmodernist practice, most powerfully conceptualized as a ‘politics of difference,’ should incorporate the voices of displaced, marginalized, exploited, and oppressed black people” (5).
In addition, the ability to take a new perspective on the Eurocentric idea of periods of literary criticism, such as the idea of "postmodernism" itself, comes close to the ideal that Jameson sets up in Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.  Condé takes the literature of the current period to a level that criticizes oppression by politicizing the text through attempts at parody and irony. 
Jameson expresses the idea of postmodernism as ending parody because of its apparent depoliticizing of satirical forms, reducing all attempts at parody to the form of pastiche, which is an essentially uncritical form (38).  However, Condé claims that her work does in fact use irony and parody.  In a section of the afterword called "An Interview with Maryse Condé," she states that she "hesitated between irony and a desire to be serious…When she was leading the fight of the maroons, it was a parody somehow" (201).  The maroon rebellion is the final technique Condé uses to call attention to Tituba's oppression.  The background event is ironic firstly because it is definitely not how the historical Tituba's life ended.  Because Condé refers to it as "parody somehow," it is an especially unusual ending to the fictional Tituba.  Tituba states herself in the last chapter of the novel that a failed rebellion in a novel criticizing colonialism is “So predictable, so easily predictable!” (166).  Therefore, Condé is using these techniques in a mostly unhistorical novel, which is not meant to be taken seriously on some levels, that attempts to give a voice to an oppressed historical person.  The situation she sets up is ironic in itself, because it subverts history while at once reclaiming it.
As Ann Scarboro states, the critic Clarisse Zimra suggests that Hester Prynne is inserted into the text to "subvert further both the male and American versions of history" (202).  While Condé does not admit to premeditating this, she does go on to say that I, Tituba is an attempt at politicizing art when she says "Writing Tituba was an opportunity to express my feelings about present-day America" (203).  Therefore, Hester Prynne's appearing in the novel, which can be considered a postmodern technique, could be said to, at least unconsciously, subvert the ideas of oppression in present-day America.  Oppression is indeed one of the main themes of the novel, and Hester Prynne's appearance must be taken into consideration as a way of dealing with oppression.  In addition, the scene of the maroon rebellion, or lack thereof, is also in the context of dealing with oppression, yet done in an attempt to be ironic, or at least partially so.  These two particular uses of anachronism and irony, as well as others, use postmodern technique in an honest attempt to make a political statement.
Hester Prynne's manifestation, according to Dukats, connects Tituba to Nathaniel Hawthorne as two true historical people (57).  She says "This gesture is, on the one hand, ironic, since it implies that although Tituba was as much alive and real as Hawthorne, she was silenced for centuries and could not become a 'writer' until the 1986 collaboration with Maryse Condé" (Dukats 57).  Even more relevant to Jameson's concept of creating within a text "a global cognitive mapping, on a social as well as a spatial scale" (54) is the fact that Condé connects Tituba and Hawthorne as both having a connection in the terrain of Salem (Dukats 58).  Therefore, Condé opens a new dimension to her text by relating fictional expressions of true characters in actual historical settings.  She brings a consciousness to the oppression of Tituba on a social level as well as in the three-dimensional space of this world.  She then perhaps partially fulfills Jameson's requirements for political postmodern art.  
Condé also plays upon language in I, Tituba.  Hester Prynne's dialogue is an example of this.  The philosophical discourses between Hester Prynne and Tituba further subvert the imperialistic and patriarchical view of history; further more, they do so in a particularly interesting way.  Hester's style of speech and personal philosophy are hardly related to the character as Nathaniel Hawthorn described her.  Hester appears to have become a feminist in Condé's fiction.  Michelle Smith de Bruin suggests in her article, "Reading in Circles: Sexuality and/as History in I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem," that the feminism itself of Hester Prynne is to be interpreted "as mercilessly parodying the very (received) notion of feminist rewriting" (603).  The dialogue in the prison scene with Hester speaks for itself; for example, when she says “It’s not my society.  Aren’t I an outcast like yourself?  Locked up between these walls?” (Condé 96).  Hester is giving a view that could almost be said to be anachronistic.  To further this point, Condé continues, in the voice of Tituba, of course: “I corrected myself.  ‘Why in this society does one give the function of witch an evil connotation?  The witch, if we must use this word, rights wrongs, helps, consoles, heals…” (96).  Two points must be considered here.  
Firstly, the careful attention paid to the logic of language itself should seem out of place to the reader.  The distinction made between her society and “this society” is important to point out, because it shows the oppression of all people as it transcends race, but especially in the context of oppression of women specifically.  However, even this important point is subverted by the fact that the characters having this discussion likely would have never actually said such things, and especially not in that particular wording.  Even more so, Hawthorne and Tituba could have never had a conversation as such.  The second point to be made is the question of the meaning of the word “witch.”  The witch originally actually was considered a healer in her culture as well as others, but was turned into something evil by the colonizing European culture.  The meaning of the word was distorted, and Tituba points that out.  What makes the new voice of history unusual is that Tituba again uses an anachronistic mode of speech to convey this point, not only here, but also at many other points in the novel when she is confronted with the word “witch.”  Each time she explains how the word was corrupted in a way that would sound natural coming from Maryse Condé herself rather than the historical Tituba, as if Condé was translating these ideas into her own language and casting them backwards through history to right the wrongs of oppression.
Tituba's confession is another device by which Condé uses history to subvert history.  By using the actual historical confession in the context of the novel, Condé brings the fictional character into perspective.  Dukats makes the point that the confession itself originally supports the worldview of Tituba's oppressors; but within the context of the novel, it reverses the meaning, allowing Tituba to obtain a new and spoken identity (55).  Bringing in an outside document, let alone the only historical document that validates Tituba's reality, is in itself an interesting technique.  The reference calls attention to the fact that Tituba was a real person who was really oppressed in Salem, Massachusetts.  When juxtaposed against the confession, the rest of the novel becomes a serious criticism of society while still using the literary techniques of the tradition of that society, thereby attempting to force the reader to see the world and history and literature all in context. 
Symbolism in the novel seems to be attempting to subvert Eurocentric symbolism as well.  Smith de Bruin makes a point about Tituba's style and how it both plays with the reader while maintaining the seriousness of giving a voice to the voiceless and oppressed characters of the past.  In particular, Condé's use of the sea as an image in the novel is an example (608).  The sea can be related to sexuality in Freudian terms, and Condé relates many of the sexual events in the novel to the sea.  For example, "Tituba herself was conceived on a ship" (Smith de Bruin 608).  However, one must question her use of a psychoanalytic view, especially due to the largely Eurocentric roots of psychoanalytic theory.  Once again, Condé is calling attention to not only the oppression of a people economically and socially, but also on the plane of the human psyche.  She uses stylistically subversive techniques to be subversive, which has to at least count for something through the lens of Jamesonian theory.
The novel, in many different ways, breaks new ground in using irony and pastiche/parody to criticize history and current society.  While one cannot say for sure that the work completely agrees with Jameson’s view of postmodern political art, insight can come from viewing the work in light of postmodern Marxist and, therefore, Jamesonian criticism.  Statements on oppression call out to be analyzed in terms of economics and culture due to the nature of the history of colonialism and imperialism.  History is not yet over, and neither is oppression, and art continues to challenge old ideas and break new ground, however uphill the battles may seem. 

Works Cited
Condé, Maryse.  I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.  New York: Ballantine, 1992.
Dukats, Mara L.  "The Hybrid Terrain of Literary Imagination: Maryse Condé's Black Witch of 
Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne, and Aime Cesaire's Heroic Poetic Voice."  
College Literature 22 (1995): 51-61.
hooks, bell.  “Postmodern Blackness.”  Postmodern Culture 1.1 (1990): 
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.990/hooks.990
Jameson, Frederic.  Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke 
UP, 1991. 
Mostern, Kenneth.  “Framing the Margins: The Social Logic of Postmodern Culture.”  MELUS
23 (1998): 167-175.
Smith de Bruin, Michelle.  "Reading in Circles: Sexuality and/as History in I, Tituba, Black 
Witch of Salem."  Callaho 18 (1995): 602-608.