Crossroads in the Study of the Americas : CISA Faculty Seminar: Fall 2002

CISA Faculty Seminar: Fall 2002

Rethinking the Americas: Dany Laferrière and Haiti

This fall, the Faculty Seminar explores the theme "Rethinking the Americas" primarily through Dany Laferrière's text Pays sans chapeau, translated as DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN by David Homel. Discussions, however, will move in and through this text, without remaining limited to it. The sessions will frame the 'rethinking' of the Americas not through the lens offered by a dominant country or nation-state within the Americas, but rather, through the lens of Haiti, which has been repeatedly described as 'the poorest country in the western hemisphere' (as Joel Dreyfuss laments) but also has a history that closely parallels, yet is markedly different from the dominant country of the region, the U.S."

Haiti won its independence in the late eighteenth century through the first successful slave revolt, which began with a Vodou ceremony in 1791, shortly after the French and American Revolutions; Haiti was declared an independent nation in 1804 by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first president, and renamed after the Taino word 'Ayiti' (meaning 'mountainous'). Haiti's history, as well as its intellectual and literary traditions, emerged in the 19th century and parallels those of U.S. and Canada. Rethinking the Americas through Laferrière's work and through Haiti -- a 'small place' (to echo the words of Jamaica Kincaid) -- will offer a unique perspective on the countries within the Americas.

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	CISA Faculty Seminar: Fall 2002 Rethinking the Americas: Dany Laferrière and Haiti This fall, the Faculty Seminar explores the theme "Rethinking the Americas" primarily through Dany Laferrière's text Pays sans chapeau, translated as DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN by David Homel. Discussions, however, will move in and through this text, without remaining limited to it. The sessions will frame the 'rethinking' of the Americas not through the lens offered by a dominant country or nation-state within the Americas, but rather, through the lens of Haiti, which has been repeatedly described as 'the poorest country in the western hemisphere' (as Joel Dreyfuss laments) but also has a history that closely parallels, yet is markedly different from the dominant country of the region, the U.S." Haiti won its independence in the late eighteenth century through the first successful slave revolt, which began with a Vodou ceremony in 1791, shortly after the French and American Revolutions; Haiti was declared an independent nation in 1804 by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first president, and renamed after the Taino word 'Ayiti' (meaning 'mountainous'). Haiti's history, as well as its intellectual and literary traditions, emerged in the 19th century and parallels those of U.S. and Canada. Rethinking the Americas through Laferrière's work and through Haiti -- a 'small place' (to echo the words of Jamaica Kincaid) -- will offer a unique perspective on the countries within the Americas.