One land, one author: in India with Catherine Clément in Calcutta
Audio 29:00
Writer and novelist Catherine Clément in studio at RFI (May 2021).
© Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI
By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint
31 min
Philosopher, writer, Catherine Clément is the author of some sixty books, essays and novels.
For almost four decades, she has been traveling the Indian subcontinent where she has lived and worked in different cities, as many of her books on India testify.
Today, it sheds light on the history and uniqueness of Calcutta, and tells it in the first person in a documented, abducted, and erudite narrative.
(Replay)
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Self-portrait of Calcutta by Catherine Clément © Seuil
"New name? Kolkata. Original name? Calcutta. Civility? Uncertain. Nationality? Double: English, Indian. Date of birth? 1690. You see, I look decayed at first glance, I crumble, I'm choking, no one in the world looks older than I. But three hundred and fifty years is not much for a megalopolis!
In truth, I officially belong to the Anglo-Indian community, deprived of subsidies since 1960. To be one, you must have at least one British male ancestor. We immediately notice the subtlety of the definition. Britannitude passes exclusively through men, even though in the middle of my belly stands the enormous statue of the enormous Queen Victoria, small head on crushing skirts, bitter widow's mouth and crown resting on a lace headdress .
You shouldn't believe anything people say about me. Calcutta, swarming misery of the world, Calcutta shantytown, Calcutta stinking waste of humanity, Calcutta that makes any white man racist in twenty-four hours, it was written and published. By Whites.
If I am useful to the wide world, it is because of the complicated. With me, nothing is easy. I am Anglo-Indian and Communist, Maoist and nationalist, violently revolutionary and mystical, dense and rebellious, Nazi and libertarian, my name is Contradiction. "
(Presentation of the Editions du Seuil)
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