Abstract: By developing what Glissant has called a “writing of relation”, Chamoiseau attains a synthesis of both species and sense in the novel. His writing makes use of allegory, a way for postcolonial literature to think about unknown origins without getting entrapped in a discourse of opposition. Allegory incorporates three necessities – abstraction, anonymity, and distancing – which un-writes history by decentring the human. It can also give speech to the voiceless animal: here, the Malfini chronicles its evolution.
