Mourning and Resilience in Indian Ocean Life Writing

This volume examines a selection of life writing in English by authors from the South West Indian Ocean, namely South Africa, East Africa, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. The two motifs that run through the chapters – mourning and resilience – are theoretical frameworks that have so far not been brought into conversation in this way. The combination of trauma studies and autobiographical analysis sharpens the focus of the discussions on Indian Ocean life writing, privileging an Indian Ocean imaginary that is transnational and cross-oceanic in its orientation and pointing to networks of connections that transcend the nation state, which is often the origin of trauma in the first place. Filling a gap in Indian Ocean studies in its close readings of trauma and resilience, the book also broadens perspectives on postcolonial life writing since little attention has been paid so far to Indian Ocean autobiographical literary products. By the same token, the volume also enriches the field of Indian Ocean literary studies by incorporating life writing as an aesthetic strategy which helps to configure Indian Ocean subjectivities. Esther Pujolràs-Noguer is a Serra-Húnter Fellow in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Lleida, Spain. She teaches postcolonial literature and culture, gender studies and poetry in English. She is a poet and uses creative writing as a therapeutic tool to help people overcome traumas related to gender violence and forced displacements. She is the co-director with Felicity Hand of the research group Ratnakara, which explores the literatures and cultures of the South West Indian Ocean. Felicity Hand is Honorary Professor in the English Department of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.