From multicultural violence to literary transgression: Ethnographic readings of contemporary Mauritian literature

The independent and contemporary island of Mauritius is often represented as a symbol of socio-ethnic harmony and brotherhood. However, the realities of the socio-cultural landscape do not always correspond to this idealized representation. The very idea of the Mauritian nation is generally articulated around a segmented model of multiculturalism and a definition of otherness that often results in some form of violence. Making reference to the creative works of Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Carl de Souza, Ananda Devi, and Amal Sewtohul, published between 1979 and 2012, this article demonstrates how postcolonial Mauritian literature challenges representations of exclusive ethnic identities and compartmentalized models of diversity, by articulating the transgression and deviance of inter- And transcultural situations in creolized contexts.