Vodou in Haitian memory : the idea and representation of vodou in Haitian imagination / edited by Celucien L. Joseph and Nixon S. Cleophat.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Joseph, Celucien L., editor.

Cleophat, Nixon S., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vodou--Haiti.

Vodou.

Collective memory.

Religion and culture.

Black people--Religion.

Social aspects.

Haiti.

Black people--Religion--Social aspects--Haiti.

Religion and culture--Haiti.

Collective memory--Haiti.

Physical Description:

xx, 228 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington, 2016.

Summary:

Throughout Haitian history-from seventeenth-century colonial Saint-Domingue to twenty-first-century postcolonial Haiti-the Afro-Haitian religion of Vodou has arguably been represented as an "unsettling faith" and a "cultural paradox," as expressed in various forms and modes of Haitian thought and life including literature, history, law, politics, painting, music, and art. Competing voices and conflicting ideas of Vodou have emerged from each of these cultural symbols and intellectual expressions. The Vodouist discourse has not only pervaded every aspect of the Haitian life and experience, but it has also defined the Haitian cosmology and worldview. Furthermore, the Vodou faith has had a momentous impact on the evolution of Haitian intellectual, aesthetic, and literary imagination; comparatively, Vodou has shaped Haitian social ethics, sexual and gender identity, and theological discourse, such as in the intellectual works and poetic imagination of Jean Price-Mars, Dantes Bellegarde, Jacques Roumain, and Jacques Stephen Alexis. Similarly, Vodou has shaped the discourse on the intersections of memory, trauma, history, collective redemption, and Haitian diasporic identity in Haitian women's writings, such as in the fiction of Edwidge Danticat and Myriam Chancy. The chapters in this collection tell a story about the dynamics of the Vodou faith and the rich ways that Vodou has molded the Haitian narrative and psyche. The contributors of this book examine this constructed narrative from a multicultural voice, which critically engages the disciplines of ethnomusicology, drama, performance, art, anthropology, ethnography, economics, literature, intellectual history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, religion, and theology. Vodou is also studied from multiple theoretical approaches including queer theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, Marxism, postcolonial criticism, postmodernism, and psychoanalysis. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Fabre Geffrard, the Holly Family, and the Construction of a "Civilized" Hait / Brandon R. Byrd Byrd, Brandon R. 1

2 Oath to Our Ancestors: The Flag of Haiti is Rooted in Vodou / Patrick Delices Delices, Patrick 21

3 The Role of Vodou in the Religious Philosophy of Jean Price-Mars / Celucien L. Joseph Joseph, Celucien L. 33

4 Jacques Stephen Alexis, Haitian Vodou, and Medicine: Between Cure and Care / Schallum Pierre Pierre, Schallum 53

5 Haitian Vodou: The Ethic of Social Sin & the Praxis of Liberation / Nixon S. Cleophat Cleophat, Nixon S. 65

6 Vodouphobia and Atrophobic Discourse in Haitian Thought: An Analysis of Dantès Bellegarde's Religious Sensibility / Celucien L. Joseph Joseph, Celucien L. 79

7 Haitian Vodou, a Politico-Realist Theology of Survival: Resistance in the Face of Colonial Violence and Social Suffering / Nixon S. Cleophat Cleophat, Nixon S. 101

8 Vodou Symbolism and "Poto Mitan" Women in Edwidge Danticat's Work / Myriam Moïse Moïse, Myriam 125

9 Writing from Lòt Bò Dlo: The Aesthetics and Poetics of Vodou in Edwidge Danticat and Myriam Chancy / Anne Brüske Brüske, Anne, Wiebke Beushausen Beushausen, Wiebke 145

10 The Economics of Vodou: Haitian Women, Entrepreneurship, and Agency / Crystal Andrea Felima Felima, Crystal Andrea 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Vodou in Haitian memory.

ISBN:

9781498508346

1498508340

OCLC:

934706177