Malagasy ecopoetics

Malagasy literary production has long displayed a discourse with Madagascar’s unique environment, often linking this an exploration of island identity. This article examines and compares poetic writing in Madagascar across 350 years. It studies the anti-colonial prose poems eighteenth-century white creole poet Évariste Parny alongside early twentieth-century Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, who brings French Symbolism into contact traditional verse, lyrical poetry by musicians modern folk-pop band Mahaleo, bring mixture traditions to style music. Parny, Mahaleo all build on break generic convention form, do so draw attention island’s specific experience ecological colonial violence their interpretation eco-regional Their writings help us make sense changes during after colonisation, human response these changes.