Beyond the Slave Narrative

Reviews / Votes

This book is a major and very significant addition to our understanding of Haitian print culture. The implications of Deborah Jenson's work are far-reaching and exciting ... [and] the author's complete command of the myriad details of the Haitian Revolution make this book a pleasure to read-with numerous revelations along the way. Beyond the Slave Narrative provides a model, information, conceptual and theoretical tools, and a wealth of primary and secondary sources for future researchers to use. * Nineteenth-Century French Studies 40, nos. 1 & 2 fall-winter * Beyond the Slave Narrative is an important addition to the growing literature on the Haitian Revolution and a truly original take on texts that have not received the attention they deserve. It is also, and very importantly, an excellent example of how the methodologies of historical research, critical theory, and literary analysis can be brought together to produce remarkable results that will no doubt inspire students in both the literary and historical fields. * The Historians, Vol. 75 No. 4 * Colonial and postcolonial studies will gain significant new breadth and depth with the publication of Deborah Jenson's Beyond the Slave Narrative: Sex, Politics, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution. This pathbreaking book brings to light the rich but largely neglected Francophone record of black literacy from the late eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Rectifying the anglocentric view that slave narratives were the only or most authentic form of black voices from the past, Jenson provides probing analyses of Creole poetry, political discourse, and other materials. Deeply committed to improving present-day conditions in Haiti, Jenson finds in the cultural heritage of the past the basis for a fuller understanding of current problems and for hope in the future.

Doris Y. Kadish