1st International Conference INDICITIES/INDICES/INDÍCIOS Hybridity in Indian Ocean Literature L'hybridation dans les littératures indocéaniques A hibridação nas literaturas do oceano Índico   Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 23rd - 25th April 2009 Stories of the legendary Lemuria allow us to envisage the cultural systems of the Indian Ocean as a once unified whole.  Sucessive waves of migration have created creolized populations where writing in English and French coexists with  Shimaore (Comoros) and Kibushi (Comoros, Madagascar), Kreol (Réunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Seychelles) and Malagasy (Madagascar).  The geographical proximity of the east coast of Africa – Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania – suggests its inclusion in a study of the Indian Ocean as a contact zone. A comparative perspective is ideal for grappling with the phenomenon of hybridity in such a complex cultural area.  It also allows us to overcome both linguistic and academic frontiers embedded within the current fragmentation of literary studies. As Bernard Mouralis (2007) argues: "language separates, writing unites".  By confronting texts from diverse parts of the Indian Ocean we aim to break down these hermetically sealed compartments in order to disclose the convergences and divergences between literary productions and their traditional criticism.  This also enables us to question the celebratory tone with which the phenomenon of hybridity is analyzed in literature and observe the silences and tensions inherent in the writings of this rich, and insufficiently explored, cultural area. The following writers have confirmed their presence: João Paulo Borges Coelho Ananda Devi Abdulrazak Gurnah