Deux romans haïtiens sur les ‘troubles’ de Saint-Domingue

If the literary and media representations of the Haitian revolution in the 19th century and in more recent periods have been extensively studied, indigenous fictional representations remain largely unexplored, often approached through a pejorative critical lens. This biased perspective underscores the need to explore 19th-century Haitian novels from a new, decolonial standpoint to enhance our understanding of how revolutionary events were not only documented but also imagined and narrated in Haiti immediately after the declaration of independence. To unveil these narratives often silenced by dominant narratives, we will delve into the troubles of Saint-Domingue as fictional material, both from a thematic and stylistic point of view. Drawing on a literary analysis of two 19th-century Haitian novels, Émeric Bergeaud’s Stella (1859) and Amédée Brun’s Deux Amours (1895), we will explore how fiction narrates the revolution and, conversely, how the revolution shapes fiction.