Anéantir l’Autre monstrueux : entreprise narrative et corporelle de disparition dans Moi, l’interdite d’Ananda Devi
The novel Moi, l’interdite, stands as an exception in Ananda Devi’s works due to the fact that it does not, directly or inherently, address the topic of feminine dissidence usually displayed in the majority of the works from the Mauritian author. The story, on the contrary, tries to set up a singular process: a disappearance affecting the narrator and main protagonist, forever condemned to be the Other because of her monstrous physical appearance. This study aims at exposing the inner machinery of the narrative, thematic, corporal and relational aspects of the destruction of this Other mainly through a narratological approach. Firstly the initiative of the disappearance can be observed through several narrative methods: chronological complexity, interlocking of several levels of discourses, abundance of narratees. Secondly the theme of disappearance is questioned in the alienating relationships developed by the main narrator, for whom her deformed body is mainly what is at stake.  This will of destruction leads to the crazily sick narrator’s (re)birth and death, as the incurable after-effects will prevent her from fulfilling her dream to belong to a fantasised Same.
Ananda Devi destruction violence otherness monstrous female body Mauritian literature francophone literature