Évariste de Parny and Antoine Bertin were writers born in the island in the 18th century, but who spent most of their lives away from their birthplace.
This theme of exoticism was one that predominated in literature written by French-language writers from Réunion writing for a readership in France.
[1] Réunion was recounted as a lost paradise inhabited by happy natives, as in the 1924 novel Ulysse, Cafre ou L'Histoire dorée d'un Noir by Prix Goncourt winning Réunionnais authors Marius-Ary Leblond.
His 1931 collection Poèmes d'Outre-Mer contained the first free verse in Réunionnais literature, daringly mixed with classical alexandrines.
[2] Jean Albany's 1951 Zamal turns the tables on the colonial literary tradition by representing France as the "other", and introduces Creole.