Department of French and Francophone Studies

Creolizing Explorations: Trajectories, Relation, and Decentering Imaginaries in Francophone Caribbean and Indian Ocean Fictions

Marie Paillard’s project lies at the intersection of Francophone studies, postcolonial studies, and migration studies, and seeks to make a significant contribution to these fields by underscoring the importance of the reclaiming of migrants’ agency. Using a comparative approach that focuses on the literatures and expressive cultures from islands of the Caribbean archipelago (Haiti and Guadeloupe) and the Mascarene region (Mauritius and La Réunion) from the 20th and 21st centuries, her research brings an original contribution to the broader understanding of migrants’ agency and transcultural dynamics in the context of globalization, by considering the representation of the experiences of Creole migrants. This project aims to shed light on movements and experiences that are often invisible, and seeks to understand the complexity of these trajectories.