Building a Reunionese Identity from 1959 to the Present : cultural Representations and Discursive Constructions ; La construction d'une identité réunionnaise de 1959 à nos jours : représentations culturelles et constructions discursives

Abstract

This research paper questions the identity claims (territorial and political, individual and collective) in a corpus of engaged speeches. The decision was to work from speeches of progressive parties, engaged novels from the 1970s-1980s, life stories and accounts from "the Children of Creuse". The analysed texts highlight the construction of a political model of state supervision and blame a process of decolonisation that stifles particularities and stigmatises the Creole identity. The claims focus on empowering the making of political decisions and considering the regional specificities. These local particularities, either geographic, linguistic or cultural, are defended as defining elements of Reunion's identity. However, the Reunionese identity is represented in a conflictual process in which the cultural elements are organised in a hierarchy. The analysis of the issue of the building of identities during the postcolonial era shows an inevitable correlation with the organisation of the colonial society. The structures of domination, transformed after 1946, correlated to the effects of the departmentalisation and globalisation, hinder the construction of an assertive identity. In this context, the literary speech becomes a means of resistance and allows the subordinates to claim the speech back to themselves and bring another version of the history. This thesis questions the concerns of the building of the Reunionese identity in the context of social and political transformations and by considering its consequences on individuals. It also emphasises the absence of consideration of colonialism and its contemporary impacts in France. ; Ce travail de recherche interroge les revendications identitaires (territoriales et politiques, individuelles et collectives) dans un corpus de discours engagés. Nous avons privilégié les discours des partis progressistes, des romans engagés des années 1970-1980, des récits de vie et des témoignages des enfants de la Creuse. Les textes analysés mettent en lumière la construction ...