Haitians in Exile: The Theoretical Turn

ABSTRACT

This essay chronicles literary reflections and critical exchanges between four Haitian authors—Jean Métellus (Jacmel, 1937–2014), Joël Des Rosiers (Les Cayes, 1951–), Dany Laferrière (Port-au-Prince, 1953–), and Edwidge Danticat (Port-au-Prince, 1969–)—who address the question of the relationship between their Haitian cultural origins and their exile from the place of their birth. It proposes conceiving of Haitian literature as a borderless global exchange based on shared historical and cultural commonplaces that create a literary community sustained by mutual critical gestures and reciprocal dialogues.

KEYWORDS:

• Edwidge Danticat
• Jean Métellus
• Joël Des Rosiers
• Dany Laferrière
• Toussaint Louverture
• exile and diaspora
• Haitian history

Notes

1. Danticat, Edwidge. Brother, I'm Dying. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.

2. Laferrière, Dany. L’Énigme du retour. Paris: Éditions Bernard Grasset, 2009.

3. Métellus, Jean. Sous la dictée du vrai. Propos recueillis par Jacques-Humbert de Poncheville. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1999.

4. See his article “Obama et … Toussaint Louverture,” published in 2009 in Haïti en marche, reprinted in Jean Métellus et le miroir du monde (51–101).

5. Métellus, Jean. Toussaint Louverture ou les racines de la liberté. Paris: Editions Hatier International, 2003.

6. Métellus, Jean. Toussaint Louverture: le précurseur. Montreuil: Le Temps des Cerises éditeurs, 2014.

7. Bernier, Céleste-Marie. Characters of Blood: Black Heroism in the Transatlantic Imagination. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2012.

8. Forsdick, Charles. “Toussaint Louverture in a Globalized Frame: Reading the Revolutionary as Icon.” Contemporary French & Francophone Studies 19.3 (2015): 325–334.

9. The Haitian revolution would mitigate Jefferson's hope for the emancipation of enslaved Africans. The complicated internal American political situation and the young U.S. republic's need to maintain a diplomatic balance with France and Great Britain led to his decision. See Matthewson, Tim. “Jefferson and the Nonrecognition of Haiti.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 140.1 (March 1996): 22–48. See also Michael J. Dash's Haiti and the United States: National Stereotypes and the Literary Imagination. 2^nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

10. Métellus’ preoccupation with Haitian history is demonstrated by the number of historical accounts to which he has contributed prefaces, for example: Wiener-Kerns Fleurimond's La Chute d'Aristide. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2009. Vol. 1 of Haïti de la crise à l'occupation: Histoire d'un chaos (2000–2004), and Les Technocrates au pouvoir. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2011. Vol. 2 of Haïti de la crise à l'occupation: Histoire d'un chaos (2000–2004); and François Lebouteux's Les Tambours de l'An X: Chronique d'Exil Haïtien. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2005.

11. Munro, Martin. Exile and Post-1946 Haitian Literature. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool UP, 2007.

12. Théard, Marie-Alice. Haïti, la voie de nos silences. Créativité… complexité… diversité: 117 femmes haïtiennes écrivent. 4 vols. Port-au-Prince: Éditions Théard, 1998.

13. Brophy underlines the paradox by juxtaposing two phrases from a verse in Tribu: “D'errance je suis… je suis d'ici” (124).

14. Métellus, Jean. Voyage à travers le langage. Isbergues, France: L'Ortho-Édition, 1996. See also Dany Laferrière's preface, “Notes sur un discours,” to Antoine de Rivarol's De l'universalité de la langue française. Paris: Flammarion, 2014.

15. Métellus, Jean. Une Eau-forte. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1983.

16. Boisseron, Bénédicte. Creole Renegades: Rhetoric of Betrayal and Guilt in the Caribbean Diaspora. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 2014.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adelaide M. Russo

Adelaide M. Russo, Phyllis M. Taylor Professor of French Studies & Comparative Literature at Louisiana State University directed the PhD Program in Comparative Literature from 2009 to 2017. She is currently the Chair of the LSU Department of French Studies. In 2016, she co-edited “Taking Stock / Faire le point” Volume 20, Issues 3, 4–5 of Contemporary French & Francophone Studies with Dominique Viart and the General Editors of the journal. Her research focuses on contemporary poetry, criticism and philosophy, especially the relationship between literature and the visual arts. She was awarded a Travel Grant by the LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences to participate in the 2017 ACLA Conference.