Couleurs locales, corps féminins et espace îlien : L’inscription de la violence dans Le livre d’Emma de Marie-Célie Agnant et Pagli d’Ananda Devi

Abstract

This article interrogates the legitimacy and univocity of historical narratives by offering a reading of Pagli (2007) by Ananda Devi and Le Livre d’Emma (2001) by Marie-Célie Agnant. Through an archipelagic approach, it analyzes how these two postcolonial writers inscribe memory, trauma, and violence within the island space. The island, conceived as a palimpsest of History, becomes both a lieu de mémoire and a site of suffering, where the persistent traces of the colonial past are revealed. The study highlights the symbolic use of color as a means of writing violence and memory, showing how these authors reinvent the representation of place to express the unspeakable realities of postcolonial societies.