ABSTRACT
Using the insular “Creole” poets Césaire, Maunick, and Glissant, I address the gendered lacunae of postcolonial theory and I question the dualities of counter-discursive practices articulated by first-wave theorists and perpetuated by visual representations that neglect island-spaces and archipelagic identities. Poets from Antillean and Mascarene islands provide insights that capture the unstable, shaky quality of the “human” across planet Earth, including the Mediterranean. They are the precursors of the young student-artists from Cyprus who extend empathy and solidarity to the Syrian migrants who arrive on their shores. The award-winning art installations they created keep the aesthetic and the ethical alive while also concretizing the limits of postcolonial theory today.
