Jean-Claude Charles: A Reader's Guide
Published on 1. November 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-1-83553-708-4 (ISBN)
Description
Despite being a major figure of Haitian literature, Jean-Claude Charles (1949-2008) has received relatively little scholarly attention to date. The present volume seeks to serve as an introduction to the work and universe of this unique and capital writer to an English-language readership. The essays in the collection are organized along three major axes: contextual articles, placing Charles' work within the larger Haitian literary landscape, punctual articles, addressing specific themes in a selection of Charles' books, and author testimonials, attesting to Charles' work's importance both to his contemporaries and to a new generation of writers. With the ongoing republication of Charles' work by Memoire d'encrier in Montreal, and the increasing interest in the author, the proposed volume is timely and necessary, and is in large part a critical accompaniment to the republishing programme. Described by Dany Laferriere as "most brilliant Haitian author of his generation," Charles has until recently remained largely unread and little understood. As the various chapters in the volume show, Charles is an author for now, and the collection will accompany readers seeking strikingly original insights on issues such as race, migration, and exile, and the role of the author and literature in times of crisis.
Reviews / Votes
"This book is a welcome addition to the body of Haitian literary criticism. It occupies a unique place as it is the first and only volume entirely dedicated to the late Haitian writer Jean-Claude Charles."Marie-Jose Nzengou-Tayo
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83553-708-4 (9781835537084)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Martin Munro is Winthrop-King Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Florida State University, and the author of Different Drummers: Rhythm and Race in the Americas (University of California Press, 2010); Exile and Post-1946 Haitian Literature: Alexis, Depestre, Ollivier, Laferriere, Danticat (Liverpool University Press, 2007); and editor of Haiti Rising: Haitian History, Culture and the Earthquake of 2010 (Liverpool University Press, 2010). Eliana Vagalau is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Her research on francophone Caribbean literature and contemporary philosophy has appeared in journals such as Francofonia, Sites, and Francophonies d'Amerique. She is associate editor of the literary and art review intranQu'illites.
Content
Preface
Rodney Saint-Eloi, Welcome to the Land of Jean-Claude Charles
Editors' Introduction, Martin Munro and Eliana Vagalau
Section One: Contexts
Joelle Vitiello, Haitian Fugues: Jean-Claude Charles and the Haitian Literary Landscape
Eliana Vagalau, Between Haiti and the World: Jean-Claude Charles' Enracinerrance
Vincent Joos, Writing against Difference: Racism and Confinement in Jean-Claude Charles' Essays
Section Two: Texts and Analyses
Jasmine Claude Narcisse, Noir, Negre et Negoce(s): Navigating Black Being through the 70s. A reading of Le Corps noir by Jean-Claude Charles"
J. Michael Dash, All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: Jean-Claude Charles and "l'ecriture du reel"
John P. Walsh, Jean-Claude Charles, Chronicler of the "Blues au longs cours"
Bonnie Thomas, Enracinerrance in Jean-Claude Charles' Sainte derive des cochons and Bamboola Bamboche
Michael Ferrier, One Man Band: Music and Writing in the Work of Jean-Claude Charles
Steve Puig, America and the Blues in Jean-Claude Charles' Free
Alexis Chauchois and Gilles Glacet, Jean-Claude Charles or writing the poto-mitan
Brigitte Tsobgny, Le Corps Noir: A Scientific Metaphor to Translate the Complexities of Racism
Alba Pessini, Retracing Baskets: A Creative Itinerary
Photo-essay: Patrick Bard, Girls Who Like Jazz Often Break the Heel of a Shoe...
Section Three: Family, Friends, and Peers
Elvire Duvelle-Charles and Cecile Duvelle, Jean-Claude Charles, A Mirror Life
Dany Laferriere, A Style
Thomas Spear, Straight, No Chaser
Edouard Duval-Carrie, From Port-au-Prince to Paris and Miami with Jean-Claude
Martine Fidele, In search of self and of horizons: Jean-Claude Charles, the anguish of being...
Kettly Mars, Exile, Myths, and Jean-Claude Charles
Rodney Saint-Eloi, Welcome to the Land of Jean-Claude Charles
Editors' Introduction, Martin Munro and Eliana Vagalau
Section One: Contexts
Joelle Vitiello, Haitian Fugues: Jean-Claude Charles and the Haitian Literary Landscape
Eliana Vagalau, Between Haiti and the World: Jean-Claude Charles' Enracinerrance
Vincent Joos, Writing against Difference: Racism and Confinement in Jean-Claude Charles' Essays
Section Two: Texts and Analyses
Jasmine Claude Narcisse, Noir, Negre et Negoce(s): Navigating Black Being through the 70s. A reading of Le Corps noir by Jean-Claude Charles"
J. Michael Dash, All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: Jean-Claude Charles and "l'ecriture du reel"
John P. Walsh, Jean-Claude Charles, Chronicler of the "Blues au longs cours"
Bonnie Thomas, Enracinerrance in Jean-Claude Charles' Sainte derive des cochons and Bamboola Bamboche
Michael Ferrier, One Man Band: Music and Writing in the Work of Jean-Claude Charles
Steve Puig, America and the Blues in Jean-Claude Charles' Free
Alexis Chauchois and Gilles Glacet, Jean-Claude Charles or writing the poto-mitan
Brigitte Tsobgny, Le Corps Noir: A Scientific Metaphor to Translate the Complexities of Racism
Alba Pessini, Retracing Baskets: A Creative Itinerary
Photo-essay: Patrick Bard, Girls Who Like Jazz Often Break the Heel of a Shoe...
Section Three: Family, Friends, and Peers
Elvire Duvelle-Charles and Cecile Duvelle, Jean-Claude Charles, A Mirror Life
Dany Laferriere, A Style
Thomas Spear, Straight, No Chaser
Edouard Duval-Carrie, From Port-au-Prince to Paris and Miami with Jean-Claude
Martine Fidele, In search of self and of horizons: Jean-Claude Charles, the anguish of being...
Kettly Mars, Exile, Myths, and Jean-Claude Charles