A History of Haitian Literature

by Marlene L. Daut (editor), Kaiama L. Glover (editor)

From nineteenth-century antislavery pamphleteering to accounts of ecological catastrophe in twenty-first-century fiction, Haitian literature has resounded across the globe since the nation's revolutionaries declared independence in 1804. Starting with pre-revolutionary writing, including the emergence of Haitian Creole letters, extending to the long, largely francophone nineteenth century, and concluding with present-day Haitian writing in the English language, A History of Haitian Literature presents the political, cultural, and historical frameworks necessary to comprehend Haiti's vast literary output. Whether writing in Haiti or its wide-ranging diasporas, Haitian authors have boldly contributed to pressing conversations in global letters while reflecting Haiti's unique cultural and historical experiences. Considering an expansive array of poets, playwrights, and novelists – such as Baron de Vastey, Juste Chanlatte, Demesvar Delorme, Edwidge Danticat, René Depestre, Kettly Mars, Dany Laferrière, and Évelyne Trouillot – the contributors to this volume offer a fresh examination of a richly polyglot, transnational literary tradition that spans more than two centuries.

Genres: History

554 pages, Hardcover

Published November 21, 2024

About the author

Marlene L. Daut is an author, scholar, editor, and professor. Her books include Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World; Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism; Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution (UNC Press); and The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe. Her articles on Haitian history and culture have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Essence, The Nation, the LA Review of Books, and others. She has won several awards, grants, and fellowships for her contributions to historical and cultural understandings of the Caribbean, notably from the Ford Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Haitian Studies Association, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She recently won a grant from the Robert Silvers Foundation for The First and Last King of Haiti. Daut graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2002 and went on to teach in Rouen, France as an Assistante d’Anglais before enrolling at the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a Ph.D. in 2009. Since graduating, Daut has taught Haitian and French Colonial history and culture at the University of Miami, the Claremont Graduate University, and the University of Virginia, where she also became series editor of New World Studies at UVA Press. In July 2022, she was appointed as Professor of French and African American Studies at Yale University.