Book contents
- A History of Haitian Literature
- Additional material
- A History of Haitian Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Editors’ Introduction
- Chapter 2 Literature as Loot
- Chapter 3 Theater in Early Independent Haiti
- Chapter 4 “So all the world may know it”
- Chapter 5 Civil War, Guerre de Plume, and the Emergence of Early Haitian Periodical Culture
- Chapter 6 History, Politics, and Revolutionary Romanticism in Charles Hérard-Dumesle’s Voyage dans le nord d’Hayti (1824) and the Anonymously Published L’Haïtiade (ca. 1826)
- Chapter 7 The Cénacle and the Sacred
- Chapter 8 Émeric Bergeaud’s Stella
- Chapter 9 The Predicament of Civilization
- Chapter 10 The Politics of Disenchantment
- Chapter 11 Haitian Poetry in Creole
- Chapter 12 Some Causes of the Underdevelopment of Haiti’s Creole-Language Literature
- Chapter 13 Performing Rebellion and Re-membering Haiti’s Past and Present in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Theater
- Chapter 14 Haitian Writers and the Forging of a National Voice through Periodicals in the Twentieth Century
- Chapter 15 “Arrêtez le monde! Je veux rêver”
- Chapter 16 Occupation-Era Literature in Haiti
- Chapter 17 Haitian Literature and the Dominican Republic
- Chapter 18 Marxism and the Moun Andeyo
- Chapter 19 Jacques Roumain, from Indigenism to Nationalism
- Chapter 20 For a History of the Novel of Haitian Tradition
- Chapter 21 Exile and Twentieth-Century Haitian Writing
- Chapter 22 The Zonbi as Episteme in Haitian Prose Fiction
- Chapter 23 Living Vodou
- Chapter 24 Papa Loko’s Dire Poétique in Twenty-First-Century Port-au-Prince-Based Haitian Poetry
- Chapter 25 Partisan Politics and Twentieth-Century Fictions of the Haitian Revolution
- Chapter 26 Haitian Women’s Fiction
- Chapter 27 Haitian Uses of the Erotic
- Chapter 28 Archiving Narratives of Maternal Loss and Queer Life in Haitian Fiction in the Wake of the 2010 Earthquake
- Index
Chapter 10 - The Politics of Disenchantment
Haitian Poetry from 1870 to 1915
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2024
- A History of Haitian Literature
- Additional material
- A History of Haitian Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Editors’ Introduction
- Chapter 2 Literature as Loot
- Chapter 3 Theater in Early Independent Haiti
- Chapter 4 “So all the world may know it”
- Chapter 5 Civil War, Guerre de Plume, and the Emergence of Early Haitian Periodical Culture
- Chapter 6 History, Politics, and Revolutionary Romanticism in Charles Hérard-Dumesle’s Voyage dans le nord d’Hayti (1824) and the Anonymously Published L’Haïtiade (ca. 1826)
- Chapter 7 The Cénacle and the Sacred
- Chapter 8 Émeric Bergeaud’s Stella
- Chapter 9 The Predicament of Civilization
- Chapter 10 The Politics of Disenchantment
- Chapter 11 Haitian Poetry in Creole
- Chapter 12 Some Causes of the Underdevelopment of Haiti’s Creole-Language Literature
- Chapter 13 Performing Rebellion and Re-membering Haiti’s Past and Present in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Theater
- Chapter 14 Haitian Writers and the Forging of a National Voice through Periodicals in the Twentieth Century
- Chapter 15 “Arrêtez le monde! Je veux rêver”
- Chapter 16 Occupation-Era Literature in Haiti
- Chapter 17 Haitian Literature and the Dominican Republic
- Chapter 18 Marxism and the Moun Andeyo
- Chapter 19 Jacques Roumain, from Indigenism to Nationalism
- Chapter 20 For a History of the Novel of Haitian Tradition
- Chapter 21 Exile and Twentieth-Century Haitian Writing
- Chapter 22 The Zonbi as Episteme in Haitian Prose Fiction
- Chapter 23 Living Vodou
- Chapter 24 Papa Loko’s Dire Poétique in Twenty-First-Century Port-au-Prince-Based Haitian Poetry
- Chapter 25 Partisan Politics and Twentieth-Century Fictions of the Haitian Revolution
- Chapter 26 Haitian Women’s Fiction
- Chapter 27 Haitian Uses of the Erotic
- Chapter 28 Archiving Narratives of Maternal Loss and Queer Life in Haitian Fiction in the Wake of the 2010 Earthquake
- Index
Summary
Haitian poetry experienced a shift, beginning as early as the 1870s, away from nationally inspired themes toward a greater insistence on poetic form and a penchant for contemplative verse. Poets often pondered abstract notions like the passage of time or the mysteries of nature. Other times they chose to write from the anguish of personal experience, mourning the loss of love to death or betrayal. Their melancholic reflections were not necessarily devoid of politics. Poets Virginie Sampeur, Massillon Coicou, and Etzer Vilaire composed their own eclectic poetry years before contributing to the famous journal La Ronde. Theirs is a poetics of ‘disenchantment’, a term that permeates the pages of the journal and characterizes their reactions to Haiti’s distressing domestic and international political situation. I offer an assessment of these three key poets and of the journal, affirming and going beyond the idea of the ‘understated political aspect’ of the movement. I demonstrate that the politics occasioning and emanating from this poetry embody distinctly Haitian calls for literary perseverance, a prescient battle for national preservation to which La Ronde is dedicated.
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- A History of Haitian Literature , pp. 175 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024