Call For Papers

The Year 2004 will mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the proclamation of Haitian Independence by the former slave Jean-Jacques Dessalines. These two hundred years have been marked by a long, tortured process of social, political, and economic decline in the 'first black republic' in the New World. Culturally, however, Haiti has remained highly productive; artistsand thinkers of great note continue to emerge from the island: from Jean-Price Mars to Jacques Roumain, René Depestre, and Anthony Phelps, to contemporary figures such as Dany Laferrière, and Edwidge Danticat, Haitian art has thrived both inside and outside Haiti.

There could be no more appropriate time to stage a conference on the cultural influence of the Haitian Revolution than in 2004, a year which offers a unique opportunity to look back over the first two hundred years of independence, to engage with contemporary issues, and to look forward, to envision how the revolutionary legacy might manifest itself (or not) in the future.

History and culture are inextricably linked, particularly in Haiti, and this conference will seek to identify the many ways in which the great historical upheaval of the revolution has touched culture in Haiti and beyond. We will there fore seek to re-interpret the cultural legacy of the revolution, evaluate its influence on all aspects of culture in Haiti, and in the wider world. The conference will address questions such as: what were the immediate effects of the revolution on Haitian culture; how has the memory of revolution formed (or de-formed) Haitian culture over the past two hundred years; and how is the legacy of the revolution manifested incontemporary Haitian literature, art, religion, and music? Also, what influence did the revolution have on cultures outside of Haiti, in the islands of the Caribbean, the Americas as a whole, Europe, indeed, anywhere? How did the revolution impact on theories of culture and race? How did refugees fleeing Saint-Domingue influence the cultures of the new lands they settled, be they Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba, Louisiana or wherever? How has the revolution been represented in the cinema? What role did language play in the revolution, and in subsequent Haitian resistance?

Provisional panels

• (Re-)interpreting the heroes of the revolution
• Romanticism and revolution
• Caribbean cultural repercussions of the revolution
• Latin American cultural aftershocks of the revolution
• North American cultural repercussions of the revolution
• European cultural aftershocks of the revolution
• Theories of culture and the revolution
• Theories of race and the revolution
• Postcolonial theory and the revolution
• Gender differences in cultural representations of revolution Indigenism and revolution
• The Duvaliers, culture, and revolution
• Exiled perspectives on the revolutionary legacy
• The revolution and poetry
• The revolution and fiction
• Magical realism and the revolution
• The revolution and drama
• The revolution, music, and dance
• The revolution and art
• The revolution, language, and resistance
• The revolution and cinema
• Education in post-revolution
• Haiti, links to popular belief systems

We invite papers in English, French, or Spanish on these and other manifestations of the cultural legacy of the revolution.

Please send proposals of 300-500 words length, along with a brief C.V. before 30th September, 2003, to

Dr. Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw or Dr. Martin Munroat haiti2004@fhe.uwi.tt

Dr. Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw

Dr. Martin Munro

Lecturers in French
Dept. of Liberal Arts
University of the West Indies
St. Augustine
Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies