A vast body of literature the components of which formulate as many numbers of theories promoting cultural exchange already exists, but significant limitations in their central concepts have affected their impact on critics. Based on these theories and literary works by Caribbean authors, this presentation explores how metaphor can be related to the geographical displacements of populations and cultures, in order to suggest a new designation – tropicality, a metaphor relating the tropics and their crossing to tropes – of critical and artistic works springing from what they support: ethical cross-cultural exchange.