Literary Evening: Otherness of/within oneself

Eileen Lohka, University of Calgary

We will talk about the intrinsic otherness of the self, and then observe how certain writers from Mauritius, including Nathacha Appanah, Ananda Devi and myself, translate this inner gap in our writing. It is on the fault line, between identity and otherness, that "artists walk, at the risk of tipping into the void" (Ananda Devi, Two Trunks and a Pot, p. 115).

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We are interested in alterity as an intrinsic part of identity and will see how three writers originally from the island of Mauritius, Nathacha Appanah, Ananda Devi and I, translate the inner gap in our writing. It is precisely on the fault line, between identity and alterity where “artists walk, at the risk of toppling into the abyss” (Ananda Devi, Deux Malles et une marmite, p. 115.