His work Poetics of Relation elaborates a theory of writing that takes the living history of the Caribbean islands as a point of departure to argue that we are all shaped by what he calls “Relation.” For Glissant, the place where Relation can be located is not in cultures but in poetics, and he leads us through the great works of literature, myth, and philosophy in an attempt at understanding what connects them. His work speaks to important concepts in Latin American and Caribbean thought and beyond, such as errantry and exile, rhizomatic thinking, creolization, archipelagic thinking, chaos, the baroque, and opacity. In 2020, the Glissant Translation Project started publishing Glissant’s works in English in a comprehensive manner, attesting to the continued interest in his work by a younger generation of scholars in environmental humanities, intermediality, and visual arts.

The reading group, which was organized through the Center for Theoretical Inquiry in the Humanities, attracted students and faculty from across campus and other universities. It met weekly in a hybrid format (in person and via Zoom), with online participation moderated by Spanish and Portuguese graduate student Marcela Lemos. We read Poetics of Relation (English transl. 1997) in its entirety and selections from Treatise on the Whole-World (English transl. 2020). On March 24, 2022, the reading group hosted Charles Forsdick (University of Liverpool), editor of the Glissant Translation Project, who spoke about the challenges of translating Glissant. The activities of the reading group culminated in a symposium, held April 8-9, 2022, featuring four distinguished scholars of postcolonial Francophone and Latin American Studies: Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel (University of Miami), Silvio Torres-Saillant (Syracuse University), Adlai Murdoch (Tufts University), and John Drabinski (University of Maryland). The symposium concluded with a roundtable composed of IU faculty: professors Edgar Illas (Spanish and Portuguese), Ilana Gershon (Anthropology), Paul Losensky (Comparative Literature), and Constance Furey (Religious Studies).