Sur les pas de Louis-Philippe Dalembert. Un hommage à la carrière du « gavroche caraïbe »

Abstract

In 1982, the Haitian writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert published his first collection of poetry, Évangile pour les miens. It was the beginning of a prolific, multiform, and successful career. During the next thirty years, he has published four other poetry collections, four collections of short stories, ten novels, and numerous essays. Intended as a tribute to Dalembert’s literary work, this article will try to describe the evolution of his production in verse and prose. In particular, three recurrent themes will be discussed: 1) the elaboration in his first texts of a system of rememorating strategies that will lead to the formulation of the notion of ‘pays-temps’; 2) the use of an urban setting, namely the borough, to convey the collective values of the community; 3) the birth, in his late publications, of a universal poetics transcending any type of border.

Keywords

• Haitian literature. Louis-Philippe Dalembert. Migrant literature. Universal poetics. Vagabondage