Rewriting the French Colonial Topos of the Island in the Works of Marie Ferranti, Jean-François Samlong, and Chantal Spitz
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: REWRITING THE FRENCH COLONIAL TOPOS OF THE ISLAND IN THE WORKS OF MARIE FERRANTI, JEAN-FRANÇOIS SAMLONG, AND CHANTAL SPITZ. Silvia U. Baage, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Directed By: Professor Dr. Caroline Eades, Department of French and Italian The island trope is a recurring theme in colonial travel literature but how do contemporary authors of the French-speaking world conceptualize the island in the 20 th and 21 st century? My project examines the complexity of the notion of islandedness in the works of three contemporary authors of Francophone islands outside the French Caribbean: Corsican author Marie Ferranti, Réunionese author Jean-François Samlong, and Tahitian author Chantal Spitz. Drawing on different discourses of postmodernity including intertextuality, supermodernity, the hyperreal, the time- image, and violence, I argue that the island becomes an important site from which ethnography, the crisis of time and meaning, and techniques of resistance are negotiated and constructed. In my analysis, I build on various foundational theories of cultural contact from the French Caribbean and Francophone Africa to account for the diversity and difference of the non-French Caribbean island text. Particular attention will be given to the literary text as a tool to reflect upon a colonial past and neo- colonial present in three different contexts of the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. REWRITING THE FRENCH COLONIAL TOPOS OF THE ISLAND IN THE WORKS OF MARIE FERRANTI, JEAN-FRANÇOIS SAMLONG, AND CHANTAL SPITZ By Silvia U. Baage Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Advisory Committee: Professor Caroline Eades, Chair Professor Valérie Orlando Professor Hervé-Thomas Campangne Professor Elizabeth Papazian Professor Pierre Verdaguer © Copyright by Silvia U. Baage 2012 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my Grandma, Dora Baage, and my first French teacher, Simone Waibel. ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help, guidance, and support of numerous individuals. First of all, I am particularly indebted to the professors of the department of French and Italian at the University of Maryland. I would like to thank Professor Caroline Eades, my advisor, for her guidance during my years of research and during the long process of writing. I would also like to thank Professor Orlando, Professor Campangne, Professor Papazian, Professor Verdaguer, for having agreed to serve on my dissertation committee. I appreciate the time they devoted to reading my work and their constructive criticism. A special thank you also goes out to Professor Brami and Professor Clough for being excellent mentors for the past seven years. Finally, there were many colleagues and friends in the department who inspired me to be a better instructor and a more careful and critical reader. My friends and family have also played an important role in supporting me and keeping me sane during Graduate School. The SPH Gym Fellows and team GF provided an important outlet for fitness in many shapes and forms. Tanja and Christine have been faithful friends despite the geographic distance. Tobi has treated me with the unbelievable comfort and luxury of the Traumschiff in Baltimore, Nice, and Monaco. Agathe has provided room and board for numerous trips to Paris for many years now. I am also very thankful for my friends in Réunion who made my stay in Saint-Denis an unforgettable experience: Cyril (for being Cyril…), Carine for being passionate about her island, its nature, and its culture, Carol for guiding my iii research at the Bibliothèque départementale and for inviting me to her home multiple times , Vanessa for her spontaneous excursions and surprises, and Ludovic for amazing pictures of the island and guidance in improving my running route. Thank you also to the members of the Udir, and Jean-François Samlong who went out of his way to include me into cultural activities and numerous outings. I would also like to thank my family for their patience, support, and motivation. Suzette, David, Hailey, and Olivia have become my second family and I am grateful for having them in my life. My Dad and stepmom drove to numerous airports, train stations in Germany and France to provide transportation for a tired graduate student with too many books to carry. My Grandpa has gotten used to calling me in different time zones. Last but not least, I want to thank my husband David for his friendship, support, love, and care. iv Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... v Introduction: Francophone Island Literature of Corsica, Réunion, and Tahiti. ............ 1 1 La littérature ultramarine, existe-t-elle ? ................................................................ 1 2 From outre-mer to outre-mers and beyond: spotlight on la francophonie ultramarine ................................................................................................................ 5 3 Corsica as exemplary showcase of French-speaking literature? .......................... 10 4 From peaks of French to ‘la Francophonie insulaire’ .......................................... 14 4.1 Corsican author Marie Ferranti ..................................................................... 16 4.2 Tahitian author Chantal Spitz ....................................................................... 19 4.3 Réunionese author Jean-François Samlong .................................................. 22 5 Rewriting the French colonial topos of the island ............................................... 25 Chapter 1: France, Francophone islands, and la Francophonie ................................. 29 1.1 The scope of islands in literature and visual culture: A small introduction ...... 29 1.2 Francophone Literature as the Other of French Literature ............................... 39 1.3 France, the French Caribbean, and other French Islands as the Other’s Other?53 1.4 Island discourses of the French Caribbean ....................................................... 66 1.5 The island through the lens of postcolonial scholarship ................................... 77 1.6 Postcolonial discourses and the postmodern fragment: new community imperatives .............................................................................................................. 82 Chapter 2: Islands as ethnographic sites ..................................................................... 87 2.1 An epistemology of good and bad islands ........................................................ 87 2.2 Story/history of the island: historical referents and the passage of time .......... 95 2.2.1 Narrative understanding and narrative explanations .................................. 96 2.2.2 Historical time and the time of the narrative: commenting historical explanations ...................................................................................................... 105 2.2.3 Narration as an event: reconfiguring narrative and historical explanations ........................................................................................................................... 112 2.3 Cultural referents and ethnotextuality ............................................................. 122 2.3.1 Ethnographic intertextuality..................................................................... 122 2.3.2 Local culture on the inhabited island ....................................................... 127 2.3.3 Conceptualizing a silenced past: a collage of various elements of local culture ............................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 148 Chapter 3: Postmodernity on the island: a poetics of different spatio-temporal realities ................................................................................................................................... 152 3.1 New signs of reality on the island ................................................................... 152 3.1.1 Supermodernity: The Francophone island as a non-place? ..................... 154 3.1.2 Hyperreality: fantasies, dreams, and the aura of the postmodern world on the island ........................................................................................................... 174 3.2 The Relation as a new pathway to History on the island ................................ 181 v 3.3 The time-image: temporality on the Francophone island ............................... 188 3.3.1 Reconciling the past and the present in one image: tableau vivant and ekphrasis ........................................................................................................... 191 3.3.2 Misalignment of the present and the past: the real as trompe l’oeil ........ 197 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 198 Chapter 4: Discourses on violence from and violent