Abstract
Through a comparative anthropology of the “alternative literary modernities” of slam-poetry, fonnkèr, a Reunionese oral poetry, and rap as a subtext, this article aims to understand the transcultural processes at play in these contemporary forms. Based on a corpus of performances, interviews, participants’ observations and posters from Reunion Island, we will examine how these hybridizations engage a performative dimension that is structured around language, poetic canons and what Homi Bhabha calls the “location of culture”. While often relegated to the rank of subaltern practices, these oral poetries participate in the emergence of minorities, perpetuating practices that rearticulate literate and popular cultures. They thus make way for female enunciations, while they differ from one another on postcolonial issues, which form the core of fonnkèr discourse. Through stylistic and rhythmic devices in which both a performing and a performative intention can be perceived, they also induce a playful and confrontational relationship to French poetic canons. Lastly, their differing stance towards the urban fact point to different relationships to the spaces in which visibility and authenticity are negotiated.