JJ Rabearivelo, Literature and Lingua Franca in Colonial Madagascar

The impact of colonization on literature and culture remains the subject of much literary investigation. This book revisits the issue from the perspective of early French colonialism in the 1920s and 30s, and examines literary activity on the great African island of Madagascar during those decades. The life and creative works of the Malagasy author, JJ Rabearivelo are its central concern. This book further emphasizes the connections between the colonial context of Rabearivelo’s writing and the possibilities of publication, international reception and canonical consecration for his works. Above all, JJ Rabearivelo, Literature and Lingua Franca in Colonial Madagascar contributes new insights to our understanding of the process by which political and literary authority can be appropriated by a metropolitan language at the expense of the natural lingua franca of the colonized population.