Creole Vernacular Theatre: Transcolonial Translations in Mauritius

Abstract

Creole-language literatures from the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean generally fall into two broad categories: "content" or source of knowledge about the local culture, and mimetic or pedagogical activity aimed at transposing European classics into vernacular languages. Creole literatures are rarely studied as technically innovative interventions capable of pushing the existing boundaries of genre and the parameters of literary analysis. In this essay, Lionnet argues that the Mauritian dramatist Dev Virahsawmy's creative adaptation and "translation" of Shakespeare's Tempest allows him to "provincialize" this classic and to develop a theory of power and sexuality that puts him in dialogue with African novelists and dramatists. Virahsawmy's play articulates a new transcolonial logic. He underscores the horizontal connections among different cultures of the "peripheries" while questioning the epistemological foundations of the means by which stories can get told, understood, translated, and disseminated both internally within their culture of origin, and globally in the contemporary market of ideas.

Contextualizing Complex Social Contact: Mauritius, a Microcosm of Global Diaspora

“…However, this modern outlook is contradicted in other ways. The legal system retains a draconian attitude towards homosexuality (Lionnet 2003) and narcotics and Mauritians tend to divide along ethnic lines (Eriksen 1994). Why this last point should be the case is complex (Caroll & Caroll 2000;Nave 2000), but may have its roots in the fact that the island's past has traditionally been based on written documentation, rather than the totality of the human experience.…”

Heterolingualism in/and translation

“…Their political, sociolinguistic and cultural agendas tend to regulate both selection and translation strategies. This applies to Canada (Gagnon in this volume), to Belgium (Meylaerts 2005 & forthcoming), Spain, Singapore (Bokhorst-Heng 1999, St. André in this volume), Mauritius (Lionnet 2003), Indonesia (Keane 2003) and so many other countries. As an institutionalised phenomenon, translation has a very ambivalent function in multilingual societies: it both allows and annihilates multilingualism.…”

“…As it circulates from Quebec literature to Francophone studies, from colonial to post-colonial perspectives, from the novel to the theatre, it demonstrates the ongoing need to (re)map the 'other' languages within the language. (MacNeil 2003) Due to, among other things, the emphasis on the ethics of translation in the context of asymmetrical power relations, heterolingualism has become a research issue in Translation Studies (Thomson 2004;Millán-Varela 2004;Boggs 2004;Destephano 2002;Tymoczko 1999;Wheeler 2003;Godard 1997;Lionnet 2003). However, more often than not, analyses are conducted in terms of 'difficulties' , of 'problems' , of 'untranslatability' .…”

Language Politics in Dev Virahsawmy's Toufann, a Postcolonial Rewriting of The Tempest

“…Morever, to focus on a unique and direct line of enquiry into the etymological roots of the word is restrictive. As suggested by Lionnet 27 "Toufann" is also itself Creole from "Tou fané", "all falls apart" which provides thematic support since the newly established neocolonial order is about to be toppled at the end of the play. Furthermore, there is also a close parallel to the Kiswahili word for tempest, "Tufani", also the title of S.S. Mushi's translation of the Shakespearean play.…”