Transoceanic echoes : coolitude and the work of Mauritian poet Khal Torabully
(2005) International Journal of Francophone Studies — Vol. 8, n° 2, p. 219-233 (2005)
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- Abstract
- Khal Torabully's poetry (mainly Cale d'étoiles coolitude and Chair corail, fragments coolies) surfaces as a marine odyssey of the coolie diaspora. Coolitude epitomizes in many respects a double articulation in Torabully's work: his commitment to denouncing trauma and violence at the eve of the twenty-first century as well as the concern of the contemporary artist to find adequate words, styles and modes to engage with this suffering. Torabully, similarly to Paul Gilroy, maps a more complex picture of the notion of 'Indian identity', shifting the emphasis from a fossilizing nostalgia for a fixed India to the ocean space that mediates the numerous cultural (ex)changes coolie culture has undergone. His rehabilitation of the coolie memory embodied in coolitude has provided him with a framework to understand, not only his own but on a more universal level, the cross-cultural chaotic relationships that can lead to bursts of creativity but also devastating violence. Coolitude thus emerges as a poetics that attempts to recover and reassess the transoceanic crossing of coolies, establishing it as a central metaphor that is constitutive of a new perspective on Indian identities characterized by multiple crossings: crossings between cultures, heritages, places, generations, gender, historical assertions, and mythical references. Le poète mauricien Khal Torabully chante le voyage océanique des coolies et évoque la traversée oubliée que chaque migrant, que chacun cherche à exprimer à un moment de son existence. En poétisant son concept de coolitude (principalement au travers de ses ouvrages Cale d'étoiles coolitude et Chair corail, fragments coolies), il établit des ponts entre engagés et esclaves, entre mémoires et peuples et fait écho au travail d'effacement de frontières de Paul Gilroy. La mémoire du déracinement, le travail d'enracinement et de deuil vis-à-vis d'une Inde mythifiée est au centre de la coolitude qui se veut 'acclimatation de l'Inde en terre plurielle', poétique de la relation qui, en récupérant l'élément coolie des profondeurs abyssales de l'oubli et du non-dit, engage au dialogue et met en exergue le métissage. L'espace océanique est ici métaphorisé par une nouvelle génération d'écrivains qui, après Paul Gilroy, le célèbrent comme lieu de l'hybridité.
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Bragard, V. (2005). Transoceanic echoes : coolitude and the work of Mauritian poet Khal Torabully. International Journal of Francophone Studies, 8(2), 219-233. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijfs.8.2.219/1 (Original work published 2005)