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This thesis analyses two different features of Mauritian society in relation to multilingualism. The first is how multilingualism appears in everyday Mauritian life. The second is how it influences mental health provision in this country. The sociolinguistics of Mauritius has drawn the attention of many linguists in the past (Baker 1972; Stein 1982; Rajah- Carrim 2004; Biltoo 2004; Atchia-Emmerich 2005; Thomson 2008), but linguists tend to have quite different views on Mauritian languages than many Mauritians themselves. Language shifts and diverse language games in the Wittgensteinian sense are commonplace in Mauritius, and have been in the focus of linguistic and anthropological interest (Rajah-Carrim 2004 and Eisenlohr 2007), but this is the first research so far about the situation in the clinical arena. Sociolinguistic studies tend to revolve only around a few other domains of language; in particular, there is great attention on proper language use – or the lack of it – in education, which diverts attention away from equally important domains of social life. Little has been published and is known about mental health, the state of psychology and psychiatry in Mauritius and its relationship with language use. This work demonstrates that mental health can provide a new viewpoint to understand complex social processes in Mauritius. People dealing with mental health problems come across certain, dedicated social institutions that reflect, represent and form an important part of the wider society. This encounter is to a great extent verbal; therefore, the use of language or languages here can serve as an object of observation for the researcher. The agency of the social actors in question – patients, relatives and staff members in selected settings – manifests largely in speaking, including sometimes a choice of available languages and language variations. This choice is influenced by the pragmatism of the ‘problem’ that brings the patient to those institutions but also simultaneously determined by the dynamic complexity of sociohistorical and economic circumstances. It is surprising for many policy makers and theorists that social suffering has not lessened in recent decades in spite of global technological advancements and increased democracy. This thesis demonstrates through ethnographic examples that existing provisions (particularly in biomedicine) that have been created to attend to problems of mental health may operate contrary to the principle of help. In the case of Mauritius, this distress is significantly due to postcolonial inequities and elite rivalries that are in significant measure associated with the use of postcolonial languages. Biomedical institutions and particularly the encounters among social actors in biomedical institutions, which are not isolated or independent from the prevailing social context, can contribute to the reproduction of social suffering.

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Le récit Moi, l’interdite, se présente comme une exception parmi les œuvres d’Ananda Devi en ce qu’il n’aborde pas de front ni implicitement le thème de la dissidence féminine, comme nous pouvons l’observer dans la plus grande majorité des œuvres de l’auteure mauricienne. Au contraire, le récit s’évertue à mettre en place un processus singulier : celui d’une disparition, perpétré contre la narratrice et protagoniste principale, condamnée à être l’éternel Autre à cause de son physique monstrueux. La présente étude se donne pour objectif d’exposer les rouages à la fois narratifs, thématiques, corporels et relationnels de cet anéantissement de l’Autre à travers une approche essentiellement narratologique. Dans un premier temps, l’entreprise de disparition est observée à travers plusieurs procédés narratifs : complexité chronologique, enchâssement de plusieurs niveaux de récit, abondance de narrataires. Dans un second temps, le thème de la disparition est questionné dans les relations aliénantes nouées par la narratrice, dont le corps difforme est le principal enjeu. De cette volonté de destruction (re)nait et (re)meurt une narratrice, malade de folie, dont les séquelles incurables l’empêcheront de réaliser son désir d’appartenance à un Même fantasmé. / 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.

L’Ile Maurice est une société complexe où se côtoient un grand nombre de langues : l’anglais et le français, langues administratives, sont apprises dès la première année du cycle primaire tandis que le kreol mauricien (KM), L1 de plus de 85% de la population, n’y joue aucun rôle à ce jour. C’est dans ce contexte que nous avons choisi d’analyser des productions orales en français et en KM d’enfants de deux groupes d’âge (6-7 ans et 8-9 ans), nos enquêtes ayant été faites dans des zones géographiques présentant des contextes socioculturels et linguistiques différents. Notre corpus est ainsi constitué d’environ 200 récits dans ces deux langues, obtenus à partir de la planche connue comme “Les oisillons”. Nous proposons ainsi une analyse détaillée des moyens mis en œuvre dans la référence aux entités, y compris des constructions possessives. Ceci nous mènera à constater avant tout qu’il existe une grande variabilité dans les productions, autant entre les langues que les zones géographiques. Nous remarquerons que l’acquisition du français est plus aboutie en zone urbaine que rurale tandis que le constat inverse s’appliquera au KM. Cette analyse mettra à jour deux conceptualisations de la tâche à accomplir (description et récit) qui montreront des degrés de variation concernant l’acquisition du genre et du nombre, ainsi que de l’utilisation du démonstratif, des pronoms, des noms nus, des possessifs et des compléments du nom. L’acquisition du français se révèlera alors tributaire d’un manque d’exposition à cette langue, de même qu’à l’influence du KM et de la variété locale de français. / Mauritius is a complex society where a wide range of languages are in compétition : whereas English and French, the administrative languages, are learnt from the first year of primary education, Mauritian Kreol (MK), the L1 of almost 85% of the population, has no part whatsoever to play in the system. Our analysis is focused on oral productions in French and MK from children of two age-groups (6-7 and 8-9 years old), coming from different sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. 200 oral productions constitute our data, both in French and MK, collected from the task of retelling a story from drawings, known as « Les oisillons ». We have produced a detailed analysis of the means used by these children in the reference to entities including possessive structures. This has brought us to acknowledge that there is a huge variability in the productions, between the two languages as well as between the geographical zones. We have noticed that children in urban context reach a higher level of acquisition in French than those living in rural areas, whereas it is exactly the opposite when it comes to MK. This analysis also shows two conceptualisations of the tasks (description and narrative), which bring to light a high degree of variability as regards to the acquisition of gender and number, as well as that of demonstratives, pronouns, bare names, possessive determiners and constructions. The acquisition of French then appears as highly influenced by a lack of exposure to that language, as well as the influence of MK and the local variety of French.

Le récit Moi, l’interdite, se présente comme une exception parmi les œuvres d’Ananda Devi en ce qu’il n’aborde pas de front ni implicitement le thème de la dissidence féminine, comme nous pouvons l’observer dans la plus grande majorité des œuvres de l’auteure mauricienne. Au contraire, le récit s’évertue à mettre en place un processus singulier : celui d’une disparition, perpétré contre la narratrice et protagoniste principale, condamnée à être l’éternel Autre à cause de son physique monstrueux. La présente étude se donne pour objectif d’exposer les rouages à la fois narratifs, thématiques, corporels et relationnels de cet anéantissement de l’Autre à travers une approche essentiellement narratologique. Dans un premier temps, l’entreprise de disparition est observée à travers plusieurs procédés narratifs : complexité chronologique, enchâssement de plusieurs niveaux de récit, abondance de narrataires. Dans un second temps, le thème de la disparition est questionné dans les relations aliénantes nouées par la narratrice, dont le corps difforme est le principal enjeu. De cette volonté de destruction (re)nait et (re)meurt une narratrice, malade de folie, dont les séquelles incurables l’empêcheront de réaliser son désir d’appartenance à un Même fantasmé. / 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.

This thesis examines young people’s constructions of nationhood in Mauritius. In 2008, the Mauritian government instituted a Truth and Justice Commission (TJC), set up to investigate the consequences of slavery and indentured labour. Through the Truth and Justice Commission, the Mauritian government indicated its desire to achieve social justice and national unity. Drawing on developments in studies of national identification practices in the 21st Century, this thesis addresses the question of young Mauritian’s locally and globally informed identification practices and asks how their unofficial narratives of nationhood challenge, or divert, or relate to official state narratives of nationhood. The basis of the study emerges from data collected from 132 participants during fieldwork in multiple fieldsites from May to September 2010 as well as research on Mauritian youth on-line from 2011-2014. The advent of the TJC offers an ideal moment to evaluate the dynamics of post-colonial nation-building and nationhood in a selfstyled multi-cultural state. Nationhood, does not exist apriori to the constructions of narratives of the nation, thus the stories told about the nation, imagine the nation into being. By situating the Truth and Justice Commission and other official state narratives alongside young people’s narratives, I argue that contemporary narratives of nationhood in Mauritius represent an intergenerational struggle to define the meaning of the past in the present and consequently outline the future. Reflecting on the ideas and socio-economic and political processes that induce national consciousness, I argue that young people’s narratives of everyday lived experiences are vital for an interpretation of how nationhood is produced in everyday life. The cultural projects of young people – often rendered as liminal or marginal – offer a critical vantage point from where to read constructions of nationhood. Far from being growing pains or childish games, young people’s identity making practices are what Sherry B. Ortner has called “serious games.” This research suggests that official state government narratives of multicultural nationhood in Mauritius narrowly define national identification along communal loyalties, overlooking the dynamism of interculturality and transnationalism in daily practice on the island. Although communalism and rigid colonial interpretations of ethnicity attempt to police and limit the possibilities of alternative modes of being in Mauritius, young people’s identification practices question, challenge, and threaten to disrupt official discourses of ethnic identification in Mauritius Scholarly investigations of young peoples’ lived experiences of nationhood extend theoretical and methodological frames for the study of nationalized subjects and deepen the understanding of the construction of national consciousness. The construction of nationhood always involves narratives of some sort – scholarship on this area has usually focused on official state narratives from social theorists, state governments, and state elites. I argue for the importance of considering subjectivity and lived experience in conceptions of nationhood. In contemporary post-colonial societies, young people are the numerical majority, however, their voices are seldom represented in theories and narratives of nationhood. Whilst young people may appear in state policies (especially education) and official narratives about the future of the nation, their creative imagining and reimagining of narratives of selfhood is often ignored. I examine how young people increasingly are aware of their transnational connections, through participation in transnational youth cultures, and they are consequently increasingly multi-lingual and multicultural. Fixed notions of ethnic identification and discourses of trauma are not at the forefront of young people’s identification of selfhood, rather their ability to take advantage of their multiply situated identification processes allows them new means to evade and transform these narratives. Their identification of selfhood is characterised by a greater degree of dynamism than previous generations had access to, and thus they do not only identify themselves through officially sanctioned national forms of identification. Loyalty to nationhood is thus less predictable, and young people represent a potential threat to the continuation of older forms of nationhood. While official narratives of nationhood may manipulate ethnic and racial cleavages to secure old loyalties, not all young people are persuaded by these notions

Les romans coloniaux tendaient à représenter les Autres de couleur de manière plus précise et réaliste que la littérature exotique. Comme dans un musée colonial, Ulysse cafre ou l'histoire dorée d'un Noir de Marius-Ary Leblond, Ameenah de Clément Charoux exposent la colonie, son fonctionnement et ses habitants. Les romanciers coloniaux mauriciens et réunionnais décrivent dans le détail, grâce au naturalisme l'intimité des races, autrement dit le génie de chaque race. Marius-Ary Leblond affirment qu'ils seraient plus aptes à décrire le réel insulaire. La représentation de l'Autre de couleur génère un conflit de légitimité. Les femmes de couleur, indiennes, noires, cafrines et métisses sont perçues dans les romans coloniaux comme des Autres à la fois racialisés et genrés. Elles sont subalternes des narrateurs et héros blancs qui parlent pour elles et les représentent. A contrario, dans les romans et les récits mémoriels postcoloniaux féminins, À l'autre bout de moi de Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Rouge Cafrine de Véronique Bourkoff et Femme sept peaux de Monique Séverin, les narratrices et les héroïnes critiquent la persistance de l'idéologie coloniale dans les sociétés anciennement colonisées. Elles donnent de nouvelles visions des femmes de couleur, capables de se représenter, de s'analyser et d'observer la société postcoloniale, car elles sont encore marquées par les stéréotypes et les discours colonialistes, orientalistes et phallocrate qui les détruisent. Paradoxalement, les identités complexes, hétérogènes et multiples des narratrices sont davantage présentes dans les fictions romanesques que dans les types autobiographiques, censés rendre compte de vérité identitaire. Ainsi, les autobiographies à Maurice et à La Réunion sont déconstruites dans les textes de notre corpus : Miettes et Morceaux d'Eileen Lohka, Letan lontan de Rada Gungaloo, Tête Haute de Mémona Hintermann et La Magie de Siva Desiles, une comédie musicale autobiograohique de Jasmine Desiles. / Colonial novels try to represant more precisely the Colored people than exotic literature. As colonial museum, Ulysse cafre ou l’histoire dorée d’un Noir written by Marius-Ary Leblond and Ameenah written by Clément Charoux expose colony, its functioning and natives. These colonials mauritians and reunioneses novelists use naturalism style to describe the intimate of races, genius of races. Marius-Ary Leblond say that they are better able to teach insular world than exotic literature. Colored people representations provoke legitimate conflict. In colonial novels, colored women, (Indians, black, “cafrine” , metis) are regarded as racial Other and gendered Other. They are subaltern of white narrators and heros. Conversely, in postcolonial women mauritian and reunionese novels, (Á l’autre bout de moi written by Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Rouge Cafrine written by Véronique Bourkoff and Femme sept peaux written by Monique Séverin) female narrators and heroines criticize continued colonial ideology, which still goes on in societies that were colonized. They give different visions of colored women, enough to represent themselves, to analyze themselves and observe postcolonial society. They still filled with stereotypes and colonialist, phallocrate, orientalist discourses. These rhetorics destroy their identity. Paradoxaly, complex, heterogeneous and multiple identities of female narrators figure into more novelistic fiction than autobiography. However, autobiography is supposed to account for true female narrator’s identity. This way, mauritian autobiography and reunionese autobiography are deconstructed in the texts of our corpus: Miettes et Morceaux written by Eileen Lohka, Letan lontan written by Rada Gungaloo, Tête Haute written by Mémona Hintermann and La Magie de Siva Desiles an autobiographic music hall written by Jasmine Desiles

Les deux récits Le Sari vert (2009) et Manger l’autre (2018) se placent aux extrêmes du spectre d’écriture d’Ananda Devi. Historiquement et stylistiquement, ces œuvres témoignent d’un engagement littéraire à représenter la condition féminine dans ce qu’elle a de plus sombre. Ces deux récits présentent un constat social qui perdure : le corps de la femme ne lui appartient pas. La présente étude a pour objectif d’exposer l’influence du discours social sur les personnages féminins, qui aboutit à une représentation essentiellement basée sur la seule apparence physique au détriment de l’identité globale de la femme. Cette apparence évoque, dans le corpus, un lieu insulaire, que le narrateur associe à l’île Maurice. Dans un premier temps, la représentation du corps de la femme est observée selon les théories féministes, l’identité de la femme étant réduite à son apparence. Dans un second temps, les appels à l’imaginaire qui caractérisent l’écriture de Devi sont convoqués pour analyser la construction discursive de la violence du quotidien et démontrer que les narrateurs des romans font systématiquement du corps de la femme l’origine des malheurs des personnages féminins. Dans un dernier temps, une approche géocritique est employée pour réfléchir sur le corps de la femme comme évocation de la morphologie insulaire mauricienne. De cette représentation du corps féminin émane violence et enfermement. Le corps est une prison de laquelle la femme doit se libérer pour ne plus faire de son insularité une tare. / The two novels Le Sari vert (2009) and Manger l’autre (2018) are opposite in the spectrum of Ananda Devi’s work. Historically and stylistically, these narratives illustrate a literary commitment to represent the female condition in its darkest aspects. These two novels describe a social fact : woman’s body doesn’t belong to her. This study aims at exposing the impact of social discourse on female characters which creates a representation almost essentially based on physical characteristics regardless of overall identity. Physical appearance recalls an insular environment, like the Mauritian island. Firstly, the representation of female body will be observed through feminist theories which will show women’s identities are reduced to physical appearance. Secondly, the fiction as an instrument to describe everyday violence will be analyzed, especially because the female body is always presented as the cause of violence. Finally, geocriticism will help us think about the female body as a metaphor of the Mauritian island. The representation of female body evokes violence and confinement. Thus, the body is a prison; woman must escape from it to embrace her insularity instead of being held hostage.

The present study aimed at describing and analysing stakeholders' perception of the role of the school in providing moral education in a multicultural society. The relevance of moral education today in the context of the Mauritian society cannot be underscored given the widespread concern about the collapse of family structures and the demise of family role models as agents of moral education. The adoption of a materialistic philosophy of life and the increasingly influential role of the media have contributed to the disintegration of the moral fibre of society. Using a qualitative approach, the understanding of various categories of stakeholders, namely teachers, students, parents and school administrators, regarding the issue of morality, moral education and the role of the school have been investigated through a survey. The sample consisted of 33 teachers, 30 students and 9 school administrators and 10 parents. The data was collected through four focus group discussions with students and teachers respectively and a series of individual in depth interviews with parents and school administrators. The data collection period extended over eight months. The conceptual framework used in the study was based on the social learning model developed by Bandura (1991:91). The notion of modelling or vicarious learning as a form of social learning is particularly relevant in the case of moral learning and moral socialisation in the context of the school. The findings reveal a general consensus among adults of the need for schools to seriously reconsider its function as a moral educator. Their perceptions of the ways in which it ought to take place focus primarily on the use of role modelling and dialogue within the school set up. Adults also seem to believe that some form of direct moral instruction could be considered if the strategy used is more student-centred and based on discussions about case studies. The students, however, perceive indirect moral instruction through the hidden curriculum to be more effective in helping them to understand and internalise moral values. Chief among their concern is the role of the teacher and his or her professionalism as well as communication skills. In the light of the findings, guidelines have been developed to implement a moral education programme at secondary school level. / Educational Studies / D.Ed.(Psychology of Education)