| My dissertation compares and contrasts French Caribbean and Indian Ocean Literatures around the concepts of Creolite, Creolisation, and Coolitude. I show that the concept of insular identity in the Mascarene Islands enriches the concept of Creolite developed by Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabe, and Raphael Confiant in Eloge de la Creolite. They define it as "the world diffracted but recomposed, a maelstrom of signifieds in a single signifier: a Totality" (27). The French-speaking literatures of the Indian Ocean offer original perspectives in which diffraction and recomposition are at the core of Creoleness in the Indian Ocean context. Therefore, identity can no longer be perceived as a state but as a dynamic process that can be achieved through physical and symbolic rebirth. From the examination of poetic and literary expression in terms of the dynamics of the representation of identity and the poetic space of the island in each literature I came up with a concept called "esthetique archipelegique." It sheds light on a new way to approach insular novels and identity based on the imagination of the sea and the shape of the island. The "esthetique archipelegique" brings new perspective on the postcolonial debate on cultural and national identity in the context of globalization. |
