| Summary: | Le Réunion has become a significant point in my lived geography (and that of my family). It is an island of diverse cultures and heritages, and in all discourse and life on the island the spectre and reality of its history of slavery is present. The affirmation of identity of those people with slave heritage and the crimes committed in the name of the French state (and financial gain in itself) make of the island a memorial place, a place of warning of the evils of colonial displacement and profiteering, as well as an affirmation of the strength of individuals and communities to overcome such traumatic origins. This remarkable (geologically young) island with its semi-tropical volcanic and mountainous habitats, its isolated cirques, its vibrant Creole language, its religious and ethnic diversity, and its pluralism ‘wrestling’ with the notion (and reality) of the French state, makes for a remarkable history of polysituatedness in poetry and literature in general....
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