La Littérature haïtienne: identité-langue-réalité by Maximilien Laroche (review)

488 LETTERS IN CANADA 1981 it necessary to work through Bayard Quincy Morgan's exhaustive Bibliography of German Literature in English Translation, first published in 1922 and subsequently augmented up to 1969. O'Neill's book is divided into five chapters. The first, 'General Collections ,' lists anthologies which contain either wholly or in part German dramas, novels, short stories, and poetry from all periods. Ensuing chapters are then devoted to pre-1700, eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century texts respectively. By far the longest listing is that of the twentieth century, a fact which is a direct reflection of modern trends in literary translation. For the most part the book is well laid out. It is comprehensive enough for the readers for whom it was intended, namely the educated general reader, those engaged in the teaching of German literature in translation, and students of comparative literalure not specializing in German. There are, however, several minor flaws. For instance, in the section entitled 'General Collections' there is no uniformity in the listings of the authors and titles which appear in the various anthologies. For some entries only authors' names are mentioned, whereas in others both authors and titles are given. Furthermore, many of the authors named in this section are not to be found in the index at the end of the book. This defect is compounded by the fact that in the ensuing chapters, under the listings devoted to individual authors, often no reference is made to the effect that some of their works appear in the 'General Collections.' This lack of consistency with regard to cross-references and indexing of the works and authors listed in the first chapter may result in the reader not being able to find works by a particular author if he relies solely on the index and the individual listings. There are only a few typographical errors in the book, and the only other inconsistency that can be mentioned is that, although in most cases the original title is given in parenthesis after the English title in the individual listings, occasionally it is not. All in all, however, these slight deficiencies do not detract from the fact that this bibliography fills an important need and will prove to be a useful work of reference. (ROBERT FOOT) Maximilien Laroche. La Litterature haftienne: identite-Iangue-realite Lem~ac 127 Dans ce livre il s'agit, pour la plupart, de quatre articles deja publies ailleurs. S'il y a une certaine repetition des themes majeurs, cela ne diminue pas Ie plaisir de lire des etudes et des analyses approfondies d'une litterature souvent meconnue et souvent soumise a des generalites qui frisent l'exotisme. HUMANITIES 489 Selon Maximilien Laroche, la litterature haitienne est diglotte. Tout en s'inspirant de la litterature orale haitienne, elle est ecrite en fran~ais ou bien en haitien. Laroche abandonne I'emploi du term creole quandil s'agit de la langue du peuple haitien. Les Haitiens ayant gagne leur independance au debut du dix-neuvieme siecle apres avoir parcouru un long chemin revolutionnaire, il convient d'accorder ala langue de ce peuple qui s'est libere de ses propres efforts la place qui lui est dile. M~me quand il est question du moyen d'expression des habitants de la Guadeloupe, de la Martinique, de la Guyane, de la Reunion et de I'He Maurice, Laroche souligne la vocation nationale de ces parlers parce qu'ils 'possedent une phonetique, une morphologie, une syntaxe et une semantique qui les differencient Ires nettement du fran~ais, meme quand ils empruntent a cette langue une bonne partie de leur vocabulaire' (p 107). Suivant les perspectives ideologiques de Cesaire et de Fanon, Laroche demontre que l'ecriture est 'Ia representation esthetique d'une situation exterieure de violence.' C'est atravers la langue que l'on n?ussira ase liberer et dans la litterature et dans la maniere de vivre. L'evolution vers cette liberation se caracterise par trois etapes: entre 1804 et '900, iI Ya la production d'une litterature haitienne en fran~ais; entre 1900 et '950, la production du texte diglottique en 'franco-haitien'; et depuis '950, la naissance d'une litterature veritablement haitienne. S...