Hajasoa Vololona Picard Ravololo (born 1956) is a Malagasy-born French academic, politician and writer. Since acquiring French nationality in 1982, she has held a number of cultural and political posts in

La Réunion LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

. Her writings include essays, fictional works and poetry.

Biography

Born on 17 April 1956 in

Antananarivo Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

, Madagascar, she is the daughter of Malagasy parents who fought for independence in the late 1950s. After passing the

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

in 1973, she earned the

Diplôme d'études universitaires générales The Diplôme d'études universitaires générales (French for ''General Academic Studies Degree''), abbreviated DEUG, was a French national degree. It was delivered between 1973 and the (implemented between 2003 and 2006 depending on the university ...

and a degree in modern literature, leading to a doctorate in linguistics at the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universit ...

in 1981. Thereafter she received the CAPES teaching degree in literature from the Réunion Academy. In the early 1980s, she lectured at the

University of Antananarivo University of Antananarivo (french: Université d'Antananarivo) is the primary public university of Madagascar, located in the capital Antananarivo. History The university traces its founding to 16 December 1955 and the formation of the Instit ...

before moving to Réunion to teach at the

University of La Réunion The University of Reunion Island (''Université de la Réunion'') is a French university in the Academy of Réunion. It is the first and only European university in the Indian Ocean. Established in 1982, it has grown steadily over the years in t ...

. There she became involved in politics, first as secretary of the Socialist Party, then at the ministry of sport and culture. Picard's collection of poems, ''De Jaspe et de sang'', was published in 1998. The work expresses the difficulties she has experienced as a woman in facing up to an unjust world while revealing her attachment to her native Madagascar. Writing in ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

'', Pierre Maury comments on how she has been inspired by her native country, commenting on its landscapes and rites while evoking how the dead are celebrated by the living in the annual turning of the bones. Her "Vieille chanson d'Imerina", based on the traditional Malagasy

hainteny Hainteny (pronounced , Malagasy for "knowledge of words") is a traditional form of Malagasy oral literature and poetry, involving heavy use of metaphor. It is associated primarily with the Merina people of Madagascar. In its use of metaphor and ...

verse form, is an example of how the Spanish language has also exerted an influence on her poetry. As of 2013, Picard is head of Malagasy Studies at the University of La Réunion where she undertakes linguistic research, specializing in morphology. In November 2013, she presented the paper "Vers une retraduction des normes de dérivation en langue malgache" at the international conference Traduction-Trahison. On the political front, she has served as deputy-mayor of Saint-Denis de la Réunion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Picard, Hajasoa Vololona 1956 births Living people Malagasy women poets Malagasy women writers 20th-century French poets French women poets 21st-century French women politicians Academic staff of the University of Antananarivo Malagasy emigrants to France 20th-century Malagasy poets 20th-century French women