Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network – French Studies
Host: Gina Stumm
Guests: Dr. Jacqueline Couti & Annie Dominique Curtius
Book: Women, Theory, Praxis, and Performativities: Transoceanic Entanglements in Francophone Settings (Liverpool UP, 2025)
Release Date: February 3, 2026

Gina Stumm interviews Jacqueline Couti and Annie Dominique Curtius about their edited volume, which explores women’s theory, praxis, and performativity across Francophone transoceanic contexts. The conversation covers the book’s genesis, its methodological innovations, the meaning of “transoceanic,” the concept of entanglement, the selection and organization of contributions, and their own essays within the collection.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Genesis and Motivations

• Inspired by a 2021 Conference:
  The book originated from a videoconference marking the 30th anniversary of Caribbean Women and Literature, a seminal work using the calabash as a metaphor for opening women's voices in masculine-dominated literary history. (04:46)
• Sisterhood in Scholarship:
  The collaboration was energized by a deep sense of "sorority, sisterly love" as well as the desire to contribute to the afterlives of pioneering women-focused scholarship in Caribbean and Francophone studies. (06:50)
• Responding to the Pandemic:
  The context of the pandemic and its sense of rupture contributed to the urgency and affective nature of the project as a healing and forward-looking endeavor. (05:40)

"The genesis is love. I know it’s weird and it’s corny, but it’s this kind of sorority, sisterly love, but in a kind of womanist approach."
— Dr. Jacqueline Couti [06:50]

Why "Transoceanic"?

• Beyond "Global":
  The editors rejected the term “global” as too broad and flattening for their purposes. “Transoceanic” centers the ocean as lived geography, a method, and a metaphor for connectivity, rupture, memory, and activism. (07:59)
• Ocean as Method:
  Follows Dilip Menon’s idea: the ocean provides a productive way to theorize land/sea sovereignty, memory, activism, and complex entanglements, without suggesting sameness among island experiences. (10:38)

"Transoceanic allows us to bridge the gap between those three geographies and those three oceans. But at the same time, our goal was not to sort of promote sameness."
— Annie Dominique Curtius [09:40]

Entanglements: Types and Theoretical Stakes

• Not a Single Network:
  Rather than mapping a unified feminist movement, the book’s title signals thematic, historical, and methodological resonances and “messy” entanglements shaped by colonialism, violence, and epistemic erasure. (15:29)
• Concrete and Theoretical:
  Some chapters trace concrete activist networks; others focus on parallel practices of refusal, care, embodiment, and knowledge emerging within shared oceanic sites. (16:28)
• Asymmetry and Messiness:
  The editors insist on attending to asymmetries—of gender, power, class, and geography—and on resisting closure: “Entanglement is messy… we’re looking at dominant modes of domination, but also ways to resist this domination.” (19:21)

"This book is not here to be like, 'okay, we studied all of that and that's done.' No, it's a conversation we're opening, showing in fact asymmetry…"
— Dr. Jacqueline Couti [18:43]

Editorial Process: Intentionality & Synergy

• Careful Curation:
  Thematic, rather than geographic or chronological, organization foregrounds collectivity, activism, intimate resistance practices, performance, and literary intervention. (26:53)
• Young and Diverse Voices:
  The editors engaged both established and rising scholars, including those publishing for the first time in English, fostering a sense of scholarly companionship and energy. (24:46)
• Hands-On Feedback:
  Iterative, dialogic editorial approach included multiple rounds of close reading and direct feedback, helping contributors sharpen their connections and thematic resonances. (20:59)

"We were really open to, in fact, reaching out to people in the French context that haven’t published in English. So we were really trying to find different type of scholars…"
— Dr. Jacqueline Couti [22:13]

Structure of the Volume & Representative Contributions

Part One: Activism and Feminisms

• Transoceanic Performativities:
  Highlights labor activism in Guadeloupe, Communist women in Martinique (Jeanne Leroux, Solange Fille Duval), and Pacific resistance (interview with Titaua Peu and Chantal Spitz).
  "Political futures through labor activism deeply shaped by colonial and maritime economies." (28:28)

Part Two: Care and Refusal

• Embodiment and Survival:
  Focuses on practices of care (e.g., daughters of Éva in Réunion), resistance to vulnerability and trauma (cancer, postpartum psychosis), and intimate forms of survival.
  "We're really trying to go back to what it means to be human… focus on what people do when they just want— not simply to survive, but to exist and say, 'Hey, I'm here.'" (30:53)

Part Three: Performance and Transness

• Archipelagic Body Grammars:
  Explores gender nonconformity and transness (Erik Desroses), Afro-diasporic choreography (Ketly Noël), and embodied gendered expression across the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Oceania.
  "Gender transgression and embodied gender expression are intrinsic to Francophone inquiries…" (34:00)

Part Four: The Power of the Pen

• Literary Praxis:
  Features Polynesian writers (Chantal Spitz, Flora Aurima Devatine), Kanak feminist poetics (Isabelle Kalda), and trilingual text/translation (Ananda Devi), emphasizing literary innovation as resistance and "poethical" (poetic+ethical) modes of connectivity.
  "Silence is reclaimed as a mode of resistance and empowerment." (39:08)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Editorial Approach:
  "The editorial process became a kind of a space of dialogue, as close reading and feedback encouraged contributors to sharpen their connections."
  — Dr. Jacqueline Couti [23:21]
• On Form and Accessibility:
  "By naming artists as theorists… the work actively democratizes knowledge production while remaining deeply engaged in rigorous… intellectual work."
  — Dr. Jacqueline Couti [44:00]

Deep Dives: Contributors’ Essays

Dr. Jacqueline Couti: Martinican Communist Women and Feminist Practice

(45:46–54:00)

• Jeanne Leroux & Solange Fille Duval: Two activists whose work centered lactation, family health, and women's improved political participation. Both were deeply involved in Communist organizations, but with no direct identification as "feminists."
• Dangerous Creole Liaisons: Couti examines entanglements where apparent ideological liberation ("communism will help women") harbors risks—mirroring her broader theoretical work.
• Matricentric Feminism & “fromakouma”: Duval’s community-pillar role is described as embodying a political, not just biological, motherhood—rooted in “fromakouma,” the massive-rooted Martinican tree, symbolizing foundational care.

"She never had children… but the idea of motherhood is very political… all about care, …the mother is at the center, what can you do to make your family better? Because if you make your family better, you will make the community and ultimately the nation better."
— Dr. Jacqueline Couti [54:01]

Annie Dominique Curtius: Tidalactic Reclaiming Skeletons

(58:29–74:39)

• Hermine’s “Le Verbe Sufficher”: Interweaves true events (exhumation of slave skeletons after a hurricane) with fiction, using "sanding through" (62:33) as a process of careful, layered engagement with painful memory—drawing from LaCapra’s “working through.”
• Dialoguing with Cesaire & Brathwaite: Links the skeleton to Bergilde (Cesaire) and Braithwaite’s peasant woman, each embodying survival and agency through the body (feet, hips, labor, dance) and the ocean.
• Tidalectics and Orality:
  Explores Kamau Brathwaite's “tidalectics” as structuring female agency and transoceanic memory; Curtius adapts the concept to “tidalactic” feminism, highlighting the agency of women sweeping, walking, and dancing—literally reclaiming land/memory from the ocean.

"All those female characters, they have existed...they are in a way the ancestors of our contemporary world. They can provide us with guidelines, roadmaps to understand our messy world."
— Annie Dominique Curtius [69:00]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Genesis of the Project: [02:46–07:38]
• Why “Transoceanic” not “Global”: [07:59–13:17]
• Concept of Entanglement: [14:57–20:34]
• Editorial & Contribution Synergy: [20:59–26:37]
• Organization of the Volume & Representative Chapters: [26:53–43:34]
• On Form, Theory, and Democratizing Knowledge: [43:34–45:46]
• Dr. Couti’s Chapter Explained: [45:46–58:04]
• Dr. Curtius’ Chapter Explained: [58:29–74:39]

Conclusion

The conversation offers an in-depth exploration of an ambitious, affective, and methodologically innovative volume. The book foregrounds the ocean as a method; “messy,” relational entanglements across colonial and postcolonial Francophone worlds; and the intellectual agency of women as theorists, activists, and artists. Collaboration, dialogic editing, and the blending of rigorous scholarship with literary and oral forms all serve the book's commitments to care, resistance, and accessibility—for both academic and broader audiences.

Recommended for:
Listeners interested in feminist theory, postcolonial studies, Francophone or Caribbean studies, interdisciplinary methods, and anyone seeking examples of collaborative, affectively engaged scholarship on women’s knowledge and agency.