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Michèle RAKOTOSON An author from Madagascar writing in French |
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Michèle Rakotoson was born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, into a
middle-class family, strongly influenced by Protestant and Quaker ethics, and
completed her schooling at the Jules Ferry High School. Her father was a
journalist and her mother a librarian. She spent her holidays with her
grandfather, a doctor who lived in a small village 50 kilometres from
Antananarivo. This early experience, together with the personality of her
grandfather, influenced her first novel. (To learn more, read the interview by
Michèle Rakotoson published in Sépia « Qui êtes-vous Michèle Rakotoson? », Sépia 23, 1996, pp.2-8.) Michèle Rakotoson
left Madagascar for France in 1983 for political reasons. In Paris she gained
a DEA in Sociology, and from 1983 until 1990 she collaborated in
revues : Théâtre Sud, Baraka, Afrique-Antilles Magazine, Jeune
Afrique Magazin;
radio programs : Mille Soleils (RFI), Antipodes (France Culture);
television: management of the cultural magazine Obsidian (RFO-AITV).
She has been responsible for the Concours les Inédits of RFI-ACCT and,
was a grant recipient from the Centre National des Lettres in 1988 and from the
Institut International du Théâtre in 1989. In 1990, Michele
Rakotoson became a Writer in Residence at the University of Providence in the
U.S.A.. Once more living in Paris (2003), she is a journalist and writer for
radio (RFI et France Culture) and television (RFO).
Publications
Dadabé. Paris: Karthala, 1984. (104p.). Novel. ISBN:2-86537-076-3
Le Bain des reliques [The bath of relics]. Paris: Karthala, 1988. (148p.). Novel. ISBN:2-86537-076-3
Elle, au printemps [She, in the springtime]. Saint-Maur: Sépia, 1996. Novel.
Henoÿ - Fragments en écorce. [Henoÿ Fragments of Bark]. Belgique: Éditions Luce Wilquin, 1998. (128p.). Novel. ISBN: 2-88253-155-X
Lalana. Paris : L'Aube, 2002. (200p.). Novel. ISBN 2-87678-783-0.
Juillet au pays. Bordeaux: Elytis, 2007. (206p.). ISBN: 978-2-91-465988-8. Travelogue.
Theatre
Sambany: Performed at Antananarivo by the Tsiory Theatre Company (1982) and the ATMF (1990), in French and Malagasy, at Banguiin Central Africa by the National Theatre Company (1992).
Raha ho very aho ry lery: Performed by the Tsiory Theatre Company (1981).
L'histoire de Koto [The story of Koto]: Adapted to Malagasy and performed by the Tsiory Theatre Company (1983).
Honahona: Adapted to Malagasy from the play by Wole Soyinka: People of the marshes (1982).
Elle dansa sur la crête des vagues [She danced on the crest of the waves]: (Unpublished)
Two scores published in the review Théatre Sud No 3 (1991), (176p.) L'Harmattan & Radio France Internationale :
- Un jour ma mémoire [One day my memory]: Performed at the Centre Dramatique of Rennes by the Company of Pierre Debauche (1989), later at Epernay by the Company Terra Incognita in a production by Stéphane Fievet at the Centre Dramatique Régional in Salmanazar.
- La maison morte [The deserted house]: Performed in Bénin (1991) by the National Theatre Company, later in Gabon by the National Radio Comapny (1992).
Short stories
Dolorosa, in Revue Noire no19 (December 1995).
Elle lui a dit un jour... [One day she told him], in Amina no 325 (May 1997), p.93.
A short story with the theme on AIDS.
Bozy, andevo-vavy, publiée dans Les Chaînes de l'esclavage [The Chains of Slavery] Paris: Florent-Massot, 1998, pp.319-323. ISBN 2-908382-95-4.
TheBallad of a Shipwreck, in King, Adèle, (ed.) From Africa - New francophone stories. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2004, pp.85-92.
Editor (jvolet@cyllene.uwa.edu.au)
The University of Western Australia/French
Created: 2 December 2003
Updated: 28 November 2007
http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/RakotosonMicheleEng.html