Bio

Isabelle Constant was born in France and studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris until she moved to the United States as a Teaching Assistant. After she finished her PhD, she taught at universities in Oregon, Idaho, Australia and Martinique. She published a book on the language of utopia in the works of Christiane Rochefort (Rodopi, 1996) a book on dreams in African and Caribbean Literatures (Karthala, 2008), a book on Patrick Chamoiseau and the Caribbean Robinson (2015), and numerous articles on French and Francophone literatures. She was the co-organizer of the Senghor Colloquium at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill in October 2006 and co-edited a book entitled Negritude: Legacy and Present Relevance, 2009). She also co-organized a colloquium on Aimé Césaire (2008) and a conference on “Créolité Antillanité, Litterature Monde” (2010) at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. She is the representative of the Conseil International d’Etudes Francophones for the Caribbean region and in charge of the book reviews and literary news for the Caribbean for the journal NEF Nouvelles Etudes Francophones. In 2016, She received the Faculty of Humanities and Education Most Outstanding Researcher Award. She recently contributed two articles to the online Dictionnaire Le Clézio.

Qualifications

Ph.D., University of Arizona

D.E.A., Université Paris IV Sorbonne

M.A., Université Paris III Sorbonne-Nouvelle
 

Research Areas

Twentieth and twenty first century Literatures in French, utopia, African and Caribbean literature, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, Studies Abroad, J.M.G. Le Clézio

Teaching Areas

Caribbean Literature

African Literature

French Literature

Teaching Foreign Languages Methods
 

Select Publications

Books:

Le Robinson antillais, de Daniel Defoe à Patrick Chamoiseau. Paris: L’Harmattan, May 2015, 200p. 

Le Rêve dans le roman africain et antillais. Paris : Karthala, 2008, 243 p.

Les Mots étincelants de Christiane Rochefort: Langages d'utopie. 194 p. Amsterdam, Atlanta: Editions Rodopi B. V., 1996, 193 p.

Book Editing and Introduction:

Antillanité, créolité, littérature-monde, Constant, Mabana and Nanton Editors. Cambridge Scholars Publishing UK, 2013. 164 p.

Negritude Legacy and Present Relevance, Constant and Mabana Editors. Cambridge Scholars Publishing UK, 2009, 321 p.
 

Keywords

African, Caribbean, French, Literature, Utopia, Chamoiseau, Le Clézio, Kourouma, Robinsonade, rêves, antillanité, créolité.