Haiti Apocalypse Now

Of all the literary and cultural traditions in the Caribbean, none has produced a body of work as rich, diverse, and challenging as that of the French-speaking islands. Informed by the great French traditions of intellectual inquiry and artistic innovation, the francophone Caribbean tradition has seen the emergence of artists, activists, and theorists such as Aime Cesaire, Leon-Gontran Damas, Rene Menil, Suzanne Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabe, Raphael Confiant, Maryse Conde, Jean-Price Mars, Jacques Roumain, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, Rene Depestre, Franketienne, Emile Ollivier, Marie Chauvet, Dany Laferriere, and Edwidge Danticat, to name only a few. The French-speaking islands and French Guyana have therefore a long, established tradition of prolific and incisive intellectual and artistic output, and have had considerable influence across the whole Caribbean literary and cultural spectrum. Until ten or fifteen years ago, the departements d'outre mer were in large part the main focus of any analysis of Francophone Caribbean culture. Since then, however, the other important French-and Creole-speaking nation, Haiti, has been the subject of unprecedented attention, both from scholars and the general public. Independent since 1804, the "first black republic" in the New World is at once a symbol of anti-colonial resistance and of postcolonial decay and economic, political, and social problems. At once years ahead of and years behind the rest of the Caribbean, Haiti demands critical attention, and in this article, I will summarize some of the major movements in Haitian literary culture, before focusing on the Duvalier period and the ways in which contemporary artists address the memory of that most traumatic period.