Lendo os parágrafos iniciais do conto Dayiva, da escritora haitiana Évelyne Trouillot / Reading the First Paragraphs of the Short Story Dayiva, by Haitian Writer Évelyne Trouillot

Resumo: Este trabalho refaz o percurso de parte de uma pesquisa de iniciação científica centrada no estudo do conto Dayiva, de Évelyne Trouillot (escritora haitiana de expressão francesa), publicado no livro Parlez-moi d’amour (2002). Na primeira parte, apresentamos o contexto histórico, político e cultural haitiano a partir de Laguerre (1989) e Figueiredo (2006); Trouillot (1990) guiou nossa compreensão do contexto histórico específico em que o conto está inserido – a ditatura de Papa Doc – e de particularidades lexicais, como os termos noir e mulâtre; aproximamo-nos do problema religioso graças a Desmangles (1992) e os trabalhos de Dash (1981), Césaire (1978) e Corcoran (2007) permitiram-nos melhor situar as questões literárias do ambiente haitiano; por fim, com Ferreira (2006), investigamos o conceito de négritude. Todo este aparato crítico-teórico nos ajudou a ler melhor o conto, propiciando uma aproximação da multiplicidade de suas referências. Na segunda parte deste artigo, apresentamos a autora e lemos os primeiros parágrafos do conto, mostrando, em uma análise narratológica e temática, como alguns aspectos culturais, históricos e geográficos do Haiti ganham forma literária, com particular atenção aos aspectos linguísticos, políticos, religiosos e naturais, mais especificamente, ao crioulo haitiano, ao regime ditatorial, ao vodu e à presença do mar.Palavras-chave: Évelyne Trouillot; Dayiva; literatura de expressão francesa; literatura haitiana.Abstract: This paper retraces part of a scientific initiation research centered on the study of the short story Dayiva, by Évelyne Trouillot (a French-speaking Haitian writer), published in the book Parlez-moi d’amour (2002). In the first part, we present the Haitian historical, political and cultural context from Laguerre (1989) and Figueiredo (2006); Trouillot (1990) guided our understanding of the specific historical context in which the story is inserted – the dictatorship of Papa Doc – and of lexical particularities such as the terms noir and mulâtre; we approached the religious problem thanks to Desmangles (1992) and the works of Dash (1981), Césaire (1978) and Corcoran (2007) allowed us to better situate the literary questions of the Haitian environment; finally, with Ferreira (2006) we investigated the concept of négritude. All this critical-theoretical apparatus helped us to better read the tale, providing an approach to the multiplicity of its references. In the second part of this article, we present the author and read the first paragraphs of the story, showing, in a narratological and thematic analysis, how some cultural, historical and geographic aspects of Haiti take literary form, with particular attention to the linguistic, political, religious and natural aspects, more specifically, the Haitian Creole, the dictatorial regime, voodoo and the presence of the sea.Keywords: Évelyne Trouillot; Dayiva; Francophone literature; Haitian literature.

Entre Haïti et le Québec. La conceptualisation de l’oraliture et de l’homme américain dans la position exotopique de Maximilien Laroche

From the 1960s, literary criticism in Quebec has had a new impetus, in particular in the comparative field. Maximilien Laroche (1937-2017), a Haitian critic and professor who has lived in Quebec since the 1960s, has contributed to this wave by establishing some points of convergence between Quebec and Haitian literature. This essay aims to analyze Laroche’s main concepts, “the American man” (l’homme Américain) and the “oraliture” (the Haitian oral heritage), underlining how his “exotopic position” (Bakhtin) has influenced his theories. The analysis of Laroche’s main works will reveal how his transitional position between Haiti and Quebec has promoted news prospects for the interamerican comparative studies. Laroche has contributed to the broadening of the continental approach, linking literatures and cultures from all over the world, but he has also underlined the importance of indigenous and traditional cultures. However his global approach has never been disconnected from his native culture and his choice to revaluate the Haitian oraliture.

Migration and Refuge

This book argues that contemporary Haitian literature historicizes the political and environmental problems brought to the surface by the 2010 earthquake by building on texts of earlier generations, notably at the end of the Duvalier era and its aftermath. Haitian writers have made profound contributions to debates about the converging paths of political crises and natural catastrophes, yet their writings on the legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberalism are often neglected in heated debates about environmental futures. The earthquake only exacerbated this contradiction. Despite the fact that Haitian authors have long treated the connections between political violence, social and economic precariousness, and ecological degradation, in media coverage around the world, the earthquake would have suddenly exposed scandalous conditions on the ground in Haiti. Informed by Haitian studies and models of postcolonial ecocriticism, the book conceives of literature as an “eco-archive,” or a body of texts that depicts ecological change over time and its impact on social and environmental justice. Focusing equally on established and less well-known authors, this study contends that the eco-archive challenges future-oriented, universalizing narratives of the Anthropocene and the global refugee crisis with portrayals of different forms and paths of migration and refuge within Haiti and around the Americas.

For an Eco-Archive

This chapter continues to build the conceptual and historical frame of the eco-archive. It argues that contemporary Haitian literature records the transformation of the environment and accumulates and inscribes overlapping temporalities of past and present, like an archive. The first part reviews a range of Caribbean and Haitian thought on the environment, broadly understood, and considers key moments of Haitian literary history of the twentieth century. Earlier forms and paths of migration and refuge, from the sugar migration up to the journeys of “boat people,” inform and historicize literary representations of the earthquake and its aftermath. The chapter then carries out close readings of a selection of René Philoctète’s poetry and his novel, Le peuple des terres mêlées, a text that depicts the “Parsley Massacre” of 1937. It draws out Philoctète’s eco-archival writing and contends that the novel foregrounds the environmental ethos of the border in opposition to Trujillo’s genocidal nationalism.

Transnational Romances and Sex Tourism in Chochueca’s Strategy, by Rita Indiana Hernández; “Emoticons,” by Aurora Arias; and “Heading South,” by Dany Laferrière

Elena Valdez analyzes transactional, heterosexual romance as an allegory of national and transnational formations in her chapter on contemporary Dominican literature and Haitian literature. Rita Indiana, Aurora Arias, and Dany Laferrière write about sex-worker protagonists who, Valdez argues, find inclusion within the nation through the sexual economy provided by tourism. These works explore sex tourism and representations thereof, along with gender relations.