Moving between Mauritius and the World (or Not)

Abstract

Abstract Contemporary literature from Mauritius, a heterogeneous multilingual production, is entangled within a complex transnational topology, where several increasingly recognized authors have deployed multiple identities through personal and editorial mobility. They benefit from (and participate in) the diversification of publishing structures, instances of dissemination, and audiences, while others hold very little symbolic capital. This paper discusses several key issues to understand the island’s multifaceted and unequal literary microcosm. It traces certain historical, linguistic and cultural predispositions of the Mauritian text today, addresses the reasons and implications of literary scale-shifting beyond the local, examines the modalities of trans/international recognition, and raises the issues at stake when translating these works. The island is hereby considered as a paradigmatic example of an emerging literary space on the postcolonial “periphery”, both contributing to challenging established canons, while remaining tributary to persisting hierarchies in the global literary system.