Richard Price’s The Convict and the Colonel takes on pressing anthropological issues, while further stressing their importance and relevance. Price’s unique combination of accounts portrays through a variety of mediums serves as a reflection on how to interpret social theory while creating the setting. Price reveals his comprehension that it is hybridity that plays a role in the power relationships of colonial settings. Through these new senses of identity are created while society suffers some losses as a result. Price inquires how to go about the most effective manner of analyzing the complex relations between fiction versus fact, present versus past, and fantasy versus reality.
Price considers experimental data in ethnography compared to memory and asks how anyone can accurately portray accounts without losing at least some meaning. He also inquires how one can actively involve themselves and express their wants and memory of the past, combined with the lingering faith in notions like “genuine” culture while we are actively involved in when we realize how culture is influenced by non-genuine entities.
Price’s story is somewhat of a historical account of Martinique to the present time from the 1920s, while it is a leading example of how philosophical inquires can be applied to the field of anthropology. Certainly, the advances in anthropology demand an increase in situational perspectives, self-reflexivity, innovative documentation processes, and moral and political involvement. Overall Price’s writing incites more thinking processes than it answers.
For the most part, the story flows like most novels, all the while informing the reader of the amount of effort required to get answers in the field of anthropology, specifically (in this case) in colonial Martmiquan culture. Sometimes the past of some cultures is regarded as fabricated, and in these cases obtaining information is exceptionally challenging.
The book is an account of the life of Medard Aribot, who is a man considered to be a folk artist and criminal, according to different perspectives. He is regarded as nearly or mentally ill and fighting against cultural changes. The man has lived in caves and stolen from the wealthy while donating to the less fortunate. He would eventually be kicked out of the land and isolated on an island, as a result of his accused part in a rebellion movement. While the book opens with these events, it soon follows into the resultant issues of an election scandal. The events of a local federal socialist group played a role in this, while the revolutionaries were against the Bloc Republic.
The colonel the novel refers to is Colonel de Coppens, a prominent part of the Bloc Republic. The colonel is killed along with roughly two dozen more, during what was an exceptionally violent day. Price depicts the events as a slaughter with both sides suffering heavy losses. The story is filled with accounts from both sides in a variety of mediums, including notes, newspapers, telegrams, and other documents. This was meant to provide a unique account from a variety of perspectives, all the while enhancing a historical and dramatic feel, however, it caters to confusion.
The hegemonic view is evident in the number of articles and other items presented in combination with the dialogue between the characters in a position of power. Resultantly, all resistance falls to personalization. Medard’s tale is, as such, transferred only by personal accounts. The portioned that are remembered thus become the ‘official’ tale of Medard as a convict. It is simply assumed that he is part of the population’s highly dangerous criminals. Medard is kept alive through current accounts, though these have kept him outside of the historic colonial account. Thus, society has affected his lingering memory while most accounts further become subject to folklore and myth. Medard essentially serves as a symbol of resistance while being the target of oppression and accusation in colonial times.
No one is certain who killed Colonel Coppens. The republic placed the blame on natives, while a local fisherman (Philibert) claims he was a witness and reports a colonial soldier murdered the colonel. Philibert explains this was a Guadeloupean soldier who was mad that Coppens disowned one of his male siblings. Price gives significant priority to this account while emphasizing many of Philibert’s memories in his account.
Price would later explain Philibert’s motivation while revealing his involvement with a new version of previous events. The credibility of the locals is low as they commonly give incorrect accounts, such as the claim that a local was arrested for creating a sculpture of Coppens and then parading through the streets with it while slandering him on voting day. Though the most common explanation was that the effigy was indeed carried around, no one can be sure, however, people are sure about who sculpted it. The next part of the story involves the mystery surrounding the local’s (Medard’s) arrest.
Price focuses on the account of Medard, ensuring accuracy while also ensuring a varying vision of previous events. Documentation created by law enforcement, accounts of members of the colony, and the accounts of locals combine for a story of oppression in colonial times. The story is also a remarkable account of the less than hospitable lifestyle inside a penal organization. By the time the story ends, Medard is not convicted of having created a statue of Coppen, however, he is convicted for stealing and banned from the community for the sake of cleanliness in the immediate community.
It is the varying part that Medard’s tale has enacted in the historical part of Martinique which is the object of Price’s focus on the close of the story. Price portrays a detailed and complex review of the past while emphasizing colonialism and the new generation.
Price further emphasizes how Medard can be placed in the living memory of the Martiniquan people. It is, in this case, quite clear that Price is highly concerned with the common notion of what he calls a “theater of memory” instead of a compilation of history stemming from esteem and examination. He finally becomes lost, a victim of the effects of society, in memory while his name falls to a distinction between subject and history.
The price implies nostalgia is counterproductive for all intents and purposes in regards to the immediate setting. Price emphasizes his desire for fishing magic, café-rum stores, and more. He ultimately seems to romanticize insanity, while fighting for the equality of some areas under the current conditions, such as colonialism. Price seems to not have any perspective with regards to the contemporary generation’s account, while everything is considered to be frivolous on their accord.
While these aspects do take away from what could have otherwise been a more enthralling and valuable plot, the story was structured and portrayed in so many positive ways that Price is still esteemed for this piece. The unique account of The Convict and the Colonel is indeed up to literary standard, while the events, characters, plot structure, and relevance to many topics provide for a great story. Price’s final lesson is that the history of colonialism falling to cultural accounts.