Lieu de mémoire, lieu d’oubli, lieu de réparation?

Abstract

The destruction of the vernacular case créole has emerged as a striking, recurrent theme in contemporary Mauritian cultural production, as well as a cause of much heated public debate. Reflecting contrasting conceptions of a lieu de mémoire - linked, paradoxically, to processes of memory, loss, forgetting, and occlusion - this article explores the diverse representations of the colonial house and its destruction in recent artistic works (by Florent Beusse and Jano Couacaud) and novels (by J.M.G. Le Clézio and Gabrielle Wiehe). Initially, the artistic works appear to be motivated by a nostalgic yearning for ‘lost traditions, wrecked ways of life’ (Nora), but close analysis hints at a different story hidden behind the houses’ facades. In the literary imaginary, the destruction of colonial-era houses is portrayed not as the subject of nostalgia or regret, but as a necessary means of achieving long-overdue, symbolic reparation for historical injustices. As such, I argue, art and literature offer a site for revealing the ‘récits cachés de la mémoire nationale’ (Nora) - particularly around slavery - in the postcolonial present.