Malcolm de Chazal, pote et artiste intgral

Abstract

This article presents one of the most important artists of Mauritius, Malcolm de Chazal, and explains why international criticism has up to now been unable to offer a fully comprehensive analysis of his work. The fact is that Chazal has made use of different media (aphorisms, metaphysical and political economy essays, theatre, painting, newspaper chronicles). Besides, a large number of his 57 books (54 during his lifetime) have been published in Mauritius and often printed in 100 copies only. For these reasons, no critic outside Mauritius has up to now done a thorough analysis of Chazal's work and most of them stick to the few books published in Paris or available in some libraries abroad (Bibliothque Nationale de France, United States Library of Congress, National Library of Australia). His work still remains to be discovered, and this article insists on a necessary holistic approach of the different media used. The author believes that Chazal wrote for the future rather than for the past.