Doctoral Degrees (Modern Foreign Languages)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Modern Foreign Languages) by Author "Dewoo, Nerisha Yanee"

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    Une histoire d’esclavage : la representation du devenir creole dans une selection de romans mauriciens contemporains
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Dewoo, Nerisha Yanee; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The present study falls within the scope of literature and identity. It examines the integration of Creole history and identity as presented in a contemporary Mauritian literary corpus published from the 2000s onwards: Histoire d’Ashok et d’autres personnages de moindre importance (Amal Sewtohul, 2001), Soupir (Ananda Devi, 2002), Terre d’Orages (Serge Ng Tat Chung, 2003), Le silence des Chagos (Shenaz Patel : 2005), Ève de ses décombres (Ananda Devi, 2006), Journey into the past (Ranjita Bunwaree, 2014), and Rivage de la colère (Catherine Laurent, 2020). The novelists selected for this project have created works of fiction that provide a wider access to the closed world of Creoles hitherto marginalised in Mauritian society, a fact that is repeated in Mauritian literary narratives. The tendency of Mauritians to insist on their cultural diversity derives from a sense of belonging elsewhere, and thus from a residual belonging to Mauritius. However, this 'founding myth' does not contain the possibility of constructing or homogenising a national identity. Mauritians always relate to the geographical spaces from which their ancestors came (India/China/Africa). They are never purely Mauritians, but Indo-Mauritians, Sino-Mauritians, Afro-Mauritians, etc., making Mauritius an in-between place, and belonging a notion that remains attached to an imagined or dreamed past. The writers in our corpus are interested in the difficulty of belonging that characterizes Creole communities. They speak of the difficulty of constructing and agreeing on a definition of an identity that cannot be formalized because its criteria are in constant flux. Creoles are at the same time rooted in a colonial/slavery past that makes being Creole synonymous with being Afro-Mauritian, as Julia Waters argues in The Mauritian Novel. Fictions of Belonging (Waters 2018: 3). The discussion around Creoles is further complicated when some are described as partially Afro-Mauritian milat (mulatto). For some Creoles, identity is further influenced by a floating memory due to an unfamiliar past, a modern political/social system governed by ancient traditions, and by how other Mauritian communities or even Creole communities themselves view what can and cannot be Creole in present-day Mauritius. The writers in our corpus show that Creole identity remains elusive and fluid, although it is surrounded by certain rigid preconceived notions. We can imagine that the works in our corpus represent the voice of these Creole characters who do not necessarily have an easy time speaking. However, the re-appropriation of Creole history and experience in our contemporary Mauritian narratives is always done through the third-party gaze of the writer who may find it difficult to reconcile the fictional and the factual. What do we really know about the Creoles apart from what is said about them in our corpus or in Mauritian society? Their history, which has long been ignored, remains unclear until now, despite the efforts of some contemporary academics to fill the historical gaps. Fiction and history are inseparable in this study. In order to develop the different notions of memory, history and fiction that underlie this thesis, numerous works devoted to historical and fictional studies accompany our literary journey. Moreover, the work of the French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, in La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli (2000a), has greatly contributed to the analysis of our novels. As the question of representation is closely linked to interpretation, we rely on a hermeneutical approach to study the staging of Creole communities in our corpus. This theory of interpretation allows us to see how the sense of belonging of these groups is articulated around historical, mnemonic, political and social axes. Is Creole identity therefore decided by others, even in texts that claim unconditional tolerance of hybridity?