The Other Hybrid Archipelago

The Other Hybrid Archipelago presents the French language postcolonial writing of the Indian Ocean islands_Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, the Comoros, the Seychelles_to an Anglophone audience. Concentrating on the period since the Second World War, the work also discusses popular theater and music, all situated in the contemporary social and political context of the islands and in relation to their colonial heritage.

The Other Hybrid Archipelago presents the postcolonial literatures of the Francophone Indian Ocean islands to an Anglophone audience. The islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, the Comoros, and the Seychelles form a region that has a particular cultural identity because of the varied mixture of populations that have settled there and the dominant influence of French colonialism. This survey concentrates on the period since the Second World War, when most of the islands achieved independence, except for Reunion and Mayotte, which maintain a regional status within the French Republic. The postcolonial approach suggests certain recurrent themes and preoccupations of the islands' cultures and an appropriate way to define their recent cultural production, while taking account of the burden of their colonial past. The rich cocktail of cultural and linguistic influences surveyed is situated in relation to the contemporary political and social context of the islands and their marginal status within the global economy.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. The Francophone Indian Ocean
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Postcolonial Perspectives
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. Critical Strategies
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Madagascar
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. Mauritius
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. La Réunion
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. The Comoros; the Seychelles
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. Trouble in Paradise