How do arts and literature participate in changing the representations and commemorations of the past of enslavement? Which narrative or pictorial techniques can produce a rethinking of the dynamics of power and of a hegemonic culture which leaves very little space for the humanity of the ‘Other’?  How do we highlight the complexities of memorial spaces and sites of trauma to pursue the process of cultural decolonising? How do we decolonise memories in the times of Internet and social networks? How do we undertake a duty of memory through the numerous media which are only reactive to immediacy? This conference will  examine how writers and artists reinvent language and imagery in order to recover the subjectivity of human beings who were prisoners of the triangular trade system and enslavement.

Photo of the Mémorial de l'Anse Caffard (Le Diamand, Martinique)

Credit: Benaouda Lebdai