Sous le signe d’Ariel et de Caliban : double discours de la diaspora haïtienne de Montréal

Abstract

Ariel and Caliban, two characters from Shakespeare ’s Tempest, served as emblematic metaphors for several interpretations of decolonization, particularly in the Caribbean context (Ruben Dario, Jose Enrique Rodo, Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon). Initially, the dichotomy was used along the North/South American axis (white/black, master/slave, civilized/ barbaric, reason/instinct, and materialism/spirituality) and the argumentation of the authors in question was mainly ideological, focusing on the various civilizational factors. Since the Nineteen Seventies, these meanings have shifted to express the negotiation of cultural differences, or were used as an aesthetic counterpoint. Developments of this kind have had a positive impact on Quebec literature, particularly in the works of authors of the Haitian diaspora, such as Emile Ollivier, Dany Laferriere and Gerard Etienne. Wherever there is a thematic divide between the topographies of Montreal and those of Haiti the stylistic registers reflect the contrasts between intellectual distance and lyrical or epic emotion, between individualism and community, rationality and supernatural collective beliefs. Being positioned between the host land and the land of origin the characters look for emotional and noetical answers to their exiled existence.

Keywords

• Quebec literature
• Haitian diaspora
• conflicting cultures
• emotion/knowledge
• exile