Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Belizar, Karine Cherie

Titel

Henri Christophe: Une figure tragique dans la littérature contemporaine, francophone/anglophone/hispanophone

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This research studies the link between African American, Latin American, Francophone and Anglophone Caribbean literatures through four works of the twentieth century: Christophe: A Tragedy in Prose of Imperial Haiti (1911) by William Edgar Easton, El Reino de este Mundo (1949) by Alejo Carpentier, La Tragédie du roi Christophe (1963) by Aimé Césaire, and The Haitian Earth (1984) by Derek Walcott. The particular problem discussed is that literature and history might not be two discrete operations. As asserted by both Hayden White and Roland Barthes, history and literary narratives are two discursive practices. The difficulty lies thus in understanding the link between Haitian history and fiction. Although similar, regarding their topoi, that is to say the Haitian Revolution and Henri Christophe, these four writers have shaped their stories within differing theoretical molds. Overall, this Master’s thesis argues that Easton, Carpentier, Césaire and Walcott do not attempt to rewrite history, but were inspired by Haiti, a place full of potential and filled with symbols, in order to carry out their ambitious projects, which foster a literary imaginary. What do these works say about the relationship between literature and post-revolutionary Haiti? How does each literary rendering of this moment in history respond to its given colonial or postcolonial reality?