Rainbow colors : literary ethnotopographies of Mauritius / Srilata Ravi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ravi, Srilata, 1960-

Series:

After the empire

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mauritian literature (French)--History and criticism.

Mauritian literature (French).

Physical Description:

viii, 173 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, [2007]

Summary:

The narratives under consideration in Rainbow Colors depict Mauritius's history of competing colonial forces, describe its intricate social geography of free and forced migrations, and portray the anxieties of mixed race persons and cultures in postcolonies. Through a rigorous analysis of novels ranging from Loys Masson's L'etoile et la clef (1945) to Ananda Devi's Moi, l'interdite (2000), this study argues that there is no single grand narrative of cultural hybridity and ethnic pluralism in Mauritius. By conceptualizing literature as the overlapping space of ethnic-cultural realities, national and transnational identities, and a poetics of alterity, Rainbow Colors explores how different literary ethno-topographies of Mauritius are produced at this intersection.

This original work considers Mauritian writing in French in its own right and not as minor literature within the Francophone tradition. Furthermore, while significant monographs on ethnicity and nation have been published on the African and Caribbean novel (in English and in French), this is the first such single-authored book-length study on Mauritian novels to date.

Contents:

1 Coloring the Rainbow: An Introduction 1

2 "Coolie Heroism": Nationalism, Postnationalism and the Romance of Indenture Immigration 19

3 Walking on Fire: Religion, Gender and Identity in Ananda Devi's Le voile de Draupadi 47

4 Ambivalently Abnormal: Metis as Racial Grotesque in Loys Masson's L'etoile et la clef and Carl de Souza's Le sang de l'Anglais 63

5 Colors of Shame: Metissage and Desire in Marie-Therese Humbert's A l'autre bout de moi 85

6 Remembering to Forget: War and Domesticity in Marcelle Lagesse's Le vingt floreal au matin 103

7 Drifting Pauls and Wandering Virginies: French Creole Identities in Jean-Marie Le Clezio's La quarantaine 125

8 Trodden Rainbow: Toward an Ethics of Reading Violence in Ananda Devi's Moi, l'interdite 145.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-168) and index.

ISBN:

9780739121375

0739121375

OCLC:

166255070