Comments on: An Interview with Toronto Poet Soraya Peerbaye http://theexcerpt.com/2010/02/an-interview-with-toronto-poet-soraya-peerbaye/ Colour commentary on the world of books Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:12:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Prasad Bidaye http://theexcerpt.com/2010/02/an-interview-with-toronto-poet-soraya-peerbaye/comment-page-1/#comment-1566 Prasad Bidaye Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:48:54 +0000 http://books.torontoist.com/?p=1810#comment-1566 I really enjoyed reading this interview. The politics of language, and the language of intimacy... These are issues that many poets have focused on over the past century, but rarely do we see a double-engagement, and I find it really interesting the way Soraya achieves this - in the poems, and especially in her reflections on her own writing practice. I am curious to know more about Mauritius' pre-colonial history. Is it really the case that there were no indigenous peoples there before the colonial encounter? I find this a little hard to swallow (but don't know enough of the history to debate it). At the same time, I really like how point of geographic/geo-cultural vacancy brings Mauritius and Antartica into a point of convergence. Reading about the connection in this interview helped me to see the book in a more unifying light. I really enjoyed reading this interview. The politics of language, and the language of intimacy… These are issues that many poets have focused on over the past century, but rarely do we see a double-engagement, and I find it really interesting the way Soraya achieves this – in the poems, and especially in her reflections on her own writing practice.

I am curious to know more about Mauritius’ pre-colonial history. Is it really the case that there were no indigenous peoples there before the colonial encounter? I find this a little hard to swallow (but don’t know enough of the history to debate it). At the same time, I really like how point of geographic/geo-cultural vacancy brings Mauritius and Antartica into a point of convergence. Reading about the connection in this interview helped me to see the book in a more unifying light.

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