Navigating language hierarchies in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean

Creoles have, since the languages first appeared, been marginalized in official spaces, which has not only led to the marginalization of Creole speakers, but also engendered anti-Creole biases and alienation in Creole speakers. All that was connected to Frenchness—language, religion, culture, etc.—was considered inherently superior. This view of the world, in which (perceived) proximity to Frenchness was synonymous with goodness, was established when colonial contact was made, and would not end with the formal end of the empire. I study works in which the quest for equilibrium of identities is carried out simultaneously through the practice of Creole language and culture and through the transmission of these practices from older women to younger generations; the older women share the ways they have constructed their lives, and how they have influenced the communities around them. I propose a new way to consider the relationship between Creole and French in literature by authors from former French colonies in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, which takes into account both the historical relationship between the languages and the authors’ personal navigation of the fraught language landscape around them: how do these authors relate to their languages, how does this manifest in their work, how does the historical and contemporary conflict affect their work, and how do these questions touch other themes such as gender?