Livre sanctifié ou pulpe écorchée ? Le corps dans la poésie d’Umar Timol

Abstract

: The article concerns the place of corporeality in the poetry of a Maurician franco phone poet Umar Timol. One can distinguish four main attitudes towards the human body in Timol’s texts: body as an object of worship or – on the contrary – of disdain and condemnation, body as a humanitarian challenge and as an object of self-reflection. The absence of typically Western dualism of physical versus spiritual in Mauritian poet’s philosophy procures a new and exotic perspective for European readers. The author ponders the purpose and motifs which could stay behind such standpoints mainly by analysing the poems in the context of Mauritian culture and comparing them to other Muslim or Indian texts.