French Literature Reviews - 2026

Aliocha Wald Lasowski, Imaginaire et politique de la créolisation. Édouard Glissant et nous
Francophone and Oral Literatures

For five years, Aliocha Wald Lasowski traveled across the Tout-monde, meeting individuals who engaged in dialogue with Édouard Glissant or drew inspiration from his thought. The conversations of 35 prominent figures with Aliocha Wald Lasowski highlight the vast diversity of literary, artistic, cultural, and political stakes involved in creolization in today's society.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The Love of Relation
Part One: Cartographies
ITALY
The Flight of Migratory Birds:
In conversation with Valerio Adami
ALGERIA
The Dramas of History and Identity:
In conversation with Boualem Sansal
An Imaginary of Freedom:
In conversation with Benjamin Stora
Memory and the Trace of What Has Vanished:
In conversation with Zineb Ali-Benali
MOROCCO
The Poet of a Land Marred by History:
In conversation with Tahar Ben Jelloun
TUNISIA
A Body of Work with an Imaginary of Identification:
In conversation with Fethi Benslama
SENEGAL
To Be Human Is to Be Connected:
In conversation with Felwine Sarr
IVORY COAST
Dwelling in the Presence of Other Imaginaries:
In conversation with Tanella Boni
CONGO
Entering the Era of the Tout-monde:
In conversation with Alain Mabanckou
DJIBOUTI
Writing Refuge, Exile, and Migration:
In conversation with Abdourahman Waberi
MARTINIQUE
Violence and the Revolt of Bodies:
In conversation with Fabienne Kanor
The Multiverse of Caribbean Afrofuturism:
In conversation with Michael Roch
Creole, Créolité, Creolization:
In conversation with Raphaël Confiant
GUADELOUPE
My Community Is All of Humanity:
In conversation with Simone Schwarz-Bart
Dreams Nourish Literature:
In conversation with Maryse Condé
In Every Writer There Is an Ogre of Writing:
In conversation with Ernest Pépin
Visual Art and Landscape in Cinema:
In conversation with Guillaume Robillard
HAITI
The Melodious Voice of the Storyteller:
In conversation with Dany Laferrière
QUEBEC
Poetic Sporales:
In conversation with Joël Des Rosiers
The Antilles and Quebec, Languages of Resistance:
In conversation with Pierre Nepveu
Joual, Language of Revolt and Freedom:
In conversation with Michel Tremblay
NEW YORK
Translation, the Universal, and Relation:
In conversation with Souleymane Bachir Diagne
LEBANON
Antidote to the Poisons of Our Time:
In conversation with Amin Maalouf
JAPAN
Capturing the World's Vibration:
In conversation with Michaël Ferrier
Japan and Creolization:
In conversation with Satoshi Hirota
BRAZIL
Brazil, Between Améfricanité and Creolization:
In conversation with Thula Pires and Thiago Florencio
Part Two: THEMATICS
IDENTITY
The Richness of Languages and Cultures:
In conversation with Edgar Morin
The Risk of the World's Balkanization:
In conversation with Régis Debray
ECOLOGY
Only Mondialité Will Preserve Living Beings:
In conversation with Mireille Delmas-Marty
Ecological and Postcolonial Stakes:
In conversation with Louis-Georges Tin
ART
The Rimbaudian Beauty of Glissant's Poetry:
In conversation with Pierre Brunel
The Great Magnate of the Unforeseen:
In conversation with Yann Toma
POLITICS
A New Politics of Relation:
In conversation with George Pau-Langevin
Creolization and Concrete Universalism:
In conversation with Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The concept of creolization, originating from linguistic and Caribbean cultural studies, has increasingly become a central framework for examining cultural exchange, identity, and globalization across the humanities and social sciences. In contemporary literary and critical discourse, discussions surrounding the Tout-monde often draw upon interconnected traditions of postcolonial theory, cultural anthropology, and comparative literature. Scholars and artists frequently investigate how diverse histories of migration, displacement, and artistic expression intersect within modern societies, engaging with the complexities of multilingualism and shared heritage.

Aliocha Wald Lasowski presents conversations with thirty-five prominent figures discussing the literary, artistic, cultural, and political stakes of creolization in today's society. The book features dialogues addressing identity, ecology, art, and politics, with contributions from international writers, thinkers, and artists. Readers interested in contemporary Francophone thought and cultural studies may find it relevant to their exploration of these topics.