Re-thinking the Haitian Other in Relation as prochain: A Reading of Édouard Glissant and Lyonel Trouillot (original) (raw)

Haiti, Politics and Sovereign (Mis)Recognitions, Journal of Postcolonial Francophone Studies

There are two stories Haiti opens for political anthropology. The first has to do with the kinds of politics that have and have not been possible in the region, and the kinds of sovereignty that have and have not been recognized and valued. The second, related, story has had to do with the links between cultural alterity and nation-building or national identity. Both these stories, of course, are not bounded regionally, but reflect broader modernist imperatives. In this

The construction of identity in haitian indigenism and the post-colonial debate

This article focuses on three moments in the intellectual elucidation of Haitian identity during the time that Haiti was occupied by the United States, from 1915 to 1934. It analyses the intellectual output of writers of Haitian Indigenism, which emerged during this period of crisis and its political developments. The article makes five main points: first, it presents the emergence of Haitian Indigenism; second, it turns to the first manifestation of Haitian intellectuals against the US occupation, considering the so-called 'writers at the margins of Indigenism; third, it presents the position of authors of the Revue Indigène, particularly of Jean Price-Mars; fourth, it analyses the Revue Les Griots, concentrating on how François Duvalier makes political use of the racial issue. Finally, through these investigations, the article establishes a dialogue with contemporary authors who discuss the construction of identity within post-colonial debate.

Colonial Subjects No More: Histories of the Haitian Revolution

In his 1995 book Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Michel-Rolph Trouillot has used the construction of both public memory and the academic M a t t s o n | 2 historiography of the Haitian Revolution to explore issues such as dominant narratives, historical silences, and the postmodernist recognition of many truths. These themes can in fact be seen quite often in the recent historiography of the Haitian Revolution due to its remarkable but for too long silenced impact on world history. Trouillot emphasizes the usefulness of the Haitian Revolution in examining the discipline of history itself, down to the insistence upon the rigors of research even in a postmodernist context. "The unearthing of silences," writes Trouillot, "and the historian's subsequent emphasis on the retrospective significance of hitherto neglected events, requires not only extra labor at the archives […] but also a project linked to an interpretation." 1 The historiography of the Haitian Revolution intersects with many issues of French colonialism; modernism, colonialism, postcolonialism, slavery, revolts, revolutions, racism, citizenship, republicanism and historical discourse are all topics which are well-represented in the scholarship. This essay will explore the English-language histories of the Haitian Revolution with a primary focus on the most recent works.

Haiti, an urban nation? Revisiting Michel-Rolph Trouillot's Haiti: State against Nation

Cultural Dynamics, 2014

In 1991, Michel-Rolph Trouillot published Haiti: State against Nation, which forcefully argued that in Haiti the peasantry is the nation. The peasantry is described as the "productive class," from whom the state and urban elite extract value through a system of tariffs on agricultural exports, primarily coffee, and imported staples. The burden on the peasantry is further exacerbated by the country's growing dependence on predatory loans from foreign states and International Financial Institutions. When Trouillot's work was published, Haiti was on the eve of its first democratic elections. Amidst the optimism of those elections, he cautioned that the historical rift between state and nation had not yet been reconciled. In the years since the publication of State against Nation, much has changed. Here, I revisit Trouillot's work in light of recent history to ask who, or what, is the nation today?