Joseph Zobel

Louise Hardwick (University of Birmingham)

Ed. by Maeve McCusker, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 4.1.2: Francophone Writing and Culture of Central America and the Caribbean.
Vol. editors: Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Maeve McCusker (Queen's University Belfast), David Murphy (University of Strathclyde)

Dates

Born 26 Jun 1915
Died 18 Jun 2006
Activity c. 1942-c. 2002

Places

Born in Martinique
Active in France

Cultural Identities

Caribbean/ Antillean French

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Zobel's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Joseph Zobel was born on 26 April 1915 at the Lapalun Plantation in the small community of Petit-Morne, near the town of Rivière-Salée in south-west Martinique, a French Caribbean island. Zobel was the illegitimate son of Berthe Rocher, who was more commonly known as Man Célia. Zobel’s father, Richard-Eugène Zobel, worked as a carriage driver on the same plantation and was largely absent. For much of his childhood, Joseph was raised on the plantation by his maternal grandmother Marie Rocher, known as Man Marie, who like her daughter also worked on the Lapalun plantation.

In 1922, at the age of seven, Zobel began primary school in the small nearby village of Petit-Bourg. The ruins of the modest two-room school can still be seen next to the village church. Archival photographs from the

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2185 words

Citation: Hardwick, Louise . "Joseph Zobel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 June 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13762, accessed 25 November 2024.]