a1522: HAITIAN FICTION REVISITED by Leon-Francois Hoffmann: Review by Bob Corbett

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

See:
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/bookreviews/hoffmann-revisited.htm

HAITIAN FICTION REVISITED
By Leon-Francois Hoffmann
Pueblo, Colorado: Passeggiata Press, 2000.
284 Pages
ISBN: 1-57889-026-8.

Comments by Bob Corbett
March 2002

In 1984 Leon-Francois Hoffmann published ESSAYS ON HAITIAN LITERATURE.
(Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press). This volume had only one
printing and is quite difficult to find. I am privileged to have a copy in
my own library and have used it with profit many times. Recently
Passeggiata Press decided to bring this volume out again. Hoffmann chose
to present several of the essays almost unchanged, to add some significant
material to one of the essays in the original volume, and finally to add
10 essays which were not in the first volume, most of which had been
published in French in the 1970s and 80s which Hoffmann presents here for
the first time in English translation.

In the Forward Hoffmann says: Most of the original essays have been
brought up to date, taking into account recently published primary and
critical works; some mistakes and stylistic infelicities have been
corrected.

I didn't find this to be quite the case. I only found two of the original
essays noticeably changed, the essay entitled Slavery and Race in Haitian
Letters and The Image of Woman in Haitian Poetry. The other carry over
essays seemed to remain virtually unchanged in content though some
stylistic changes are noted. Those carry overs are:

The Introduction

Haitian Literature: An Overview

The Linguistic Situation in Haiti

The U.S. and Americans in Haitian Literature (renamed in the current
volume as: The United States and its Citizens in Haitian Letters).

The First Haitian Novel Emeric Bergeauds Stella

All but two of those simply needed no changes. However, I cant help being
disappointed that the second and third listed were not amended. There has
been a dramatic change in the past twenty years, especially with the
growth of raised political consciousness in Haiti since the fall of
Duvalier, and the fundamental problematic in the concerns about the
Haitian language have dramatically changed. In Hoffmanns essay they are
much more concerned with a more French version of Creole vs a more Creole
version. Today with the official new orthography and the adoption of
Creole for both schools and official documents the entire question is
placed in a new light. This leave the early Kauffmann essays of much more
historical interest that addressing the topic as such.

These are minor criticisms, however, of an over-all fantastic book and
marvelous contribution to Haitian scholarship.

Two of the new additions stand out for me. In my own historical writing on
Haiti I have taken a quite strong stand that one should regard the Spanish
treatment of the Taino/Arawaks as a case of genocide. This view was
vehemently attacked by the Taino/Arawak tribal association on what I took
to be largely grounds of political correctness rather than historical
accuracy. They just wanted to world to be different that I think the
historical evidence showed and complained of my insensitivity. However,
later on some historians raised much more serious objections to my
argument and left me in a position where I believe I have to revise my
thesis. Thus it was a joy for me to discover Kauffmanns essay The Indian
Element in the Haitian Collective Consciousness which turns out to be a
much stronger case for what he calls the ethnocide of the Taino/Arawak
than my own case, and leaves me with less to revise that I had originally
thought. Now, armed with the powerful analyses of the primary sources
which Kauffmann reveals, which show that little remnants of either Taino
blood or culture can really be shown to exist in contemporary Haiti, my
job of reassessment may well leave me with less revision to do. What was a
dreaded job for me is looking more and more appealing.

A second essay of special interest is entitled The Ceremony at Bois
Caiman. Here again Kauffmann uses his meticulous analysis of original
sources to argue that there never was such a ceremony and that its actual
originals were in the writings of a Frenchman who was using it to
denigrate the slaves, not celebrate a motivational or mystical moment.
Kauffmans tracing of the development and changing oh the story in Haitian
literature is a tour-de-force of in-depth scholarship.

Another first time essay in English translation is Antenor Firmin and the
United States in which Kauffmann does some interesting comparisons between
the person, character and political life of Firmin and of Jean-Betrand
Aristide whom he sees to be much like Firmin in many essential manners.

He concludes his newly presented essays with two very short pieces
examining the novel Amour by Marie Chauvet and the writing of Haitian
writer Emile Ollivier who went into exile in 1975.

Hoffmann offers a fully revised bibliography which is completely updated.

This is a very scholarly book, yet not a general read for all. I found it
to be a superb overview of Haitian literature and a great guide for
further study. I would highly recommend it to any who wish to know and
understand Haitian literature in scholarly depth.