In the histories of western European vernacular languages, it is widely acknowledged that literary figures have played an important role in the process of language standardization. Indeed, the codifying of language and the canonizing of literature are often seen as symbiotic processes. This article explores the links between creative writing and standardization by looking at the case of Mauritian Creole (MC). For these purposes, I carry out a linguistic analysis of selected works of Dev Virahsawmy, the pioneering and most prolific author using the medium of MC. The analysis focuses on the development of a systematic orthography, lexical, register and syntactic elaboration. In the case of MC, which did not have a written form prior to literature, it is suggested that the symbiosis mentioned by Adamson in relation to language standardization runs deeper. The article finally highlights the establishment of a standard as being subject to intentional individual pressures.

This article is located at the crossroads between language and literature which postcolonial studies is beginning to confront. I explore language politics in a postcolonial context through an analysis of codeswitching in Dev Virahsawmy's Toufann (1991), a rewriting of Shakespeare's The Tempest in Mauritian Creole. I argue that in Virahsawmy's play the prominent juxtaposition of different languages, over and above different registers, fulfils important metaphorical functions. I investigate, in particular, how the strategic deployment of languages by Virahsawmy not only affects the perceived identity of his characters and his own narrative voice, but also interacts with the wider ideological framework within which he writes. Finally Virahsawmy's codeswitching strategy sheds light on the enabling if persistently ambivalent role of Shakespeare in a postcolonial context.

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