Le docteur et la sorcière : conflits de médecine et concurrence des traditions dans Moi, Tituba, sorcière ... Noire de Salem

Authors

Natacha d'Orlando, Université Paris 8

Abstract

This article focuses on Maryse Condé's depiction of medicine and science in her 1986 novel Mai, Tituba, sorcière. It argues that Tituba's critique of modern western medicine, as well as her definition of witchcraft as a healing art, resonate with some topical feminist issues around the time of its publication. Condé's rewriting of the Salem witchtrials emphasizes indeed the epistemological, as well as metaphysical, conflict between the female Caribbean healer and the male doctor whose diagnoses contribute to Tituba's condemnation. As Tituba's confidence in her power and knowledge grows, she also impersonates the danger of an arrogant science, forgoing Man Yaya's teaching to please her Promethean ambition. Lastly, we will illustrate how Maryse Condé playfully mimics the language of science, inventing a fictive nature to deceive her reader's possible thirst for knowledge.

Recommended Citation

d'Orlando, Natacha (2019) "Le docteur et la sorcière : conflits de médecine et concurrence des traditions dans Moi, Tituba, sorcière ... Noire de Salem," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 93: No. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol93/iss1/6