Lost in consumerism: existential and linguistic wanderings in Confusions d’instants (2003) by Gerty Dambury

Guadeloupean author Gerty Dambury’s play Confusion d’instants (2003) is a treatment of the impact of globalization on the French and French Caribbean societies’ most disenfranchised members. It also explores the interaction of personal and collective memory with local, national, and global histories. Confusion d’instants depicts the lives of three characters belonging to different generations and genders, who each speak in a single tense (past, present, or future). Each character also has a personal fixation with specific objects of consumption, such as radios, cars, or household appliances. Through the experiences of these socially and culturally marginalized characters Dambury articulates a searing critique of contemporary Guadeloupean society and of global capitalist consumerism in general. Through a close reading of the play, the article will analyse Dambury’s dramatic reflection on globalization, forgotten histories, and social marginalization.