French 341HT - The Haitian Literary Tradition

This course engages with the rich tradition of French writing from Haiti. Beginning with Emeric Bergeaud's Stella (1859), the first novel of the first Black republic, students will explore the history of Haitian writing across literary genres and movements, including the Indigénisme that anticipated Négritude. We will study this tradition both on the island and abroad. Diasporic authors from the period of the Duvalier dictatorship include Dany Laferrière, famous as both the first Haitian and the first Quebecois to enter the Académie française, and Marie Vieux-Chauvet. In Haiti's contemporary literary scene, we focus on women writers such as Yanick Lahens, Kettly Mars and Marie-Célie Agnant.

Prereq: Two of the following courses: FREN-215, FREN-219, FREN-225.