Haiti's Worldly Literature

The Littérature-monde manifesto, published in 2007, seems to announce a new era for writing in French from non-metropolitan regions. It moreover suggests that this moment marks a "Copernican revolution" in the literary history of France and the Frenchspeaking world. This article considers the case of Haitian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, and suggests that this, one of the oldest Francophone literary traditions, can be thought of as a precursor to "littérature-monde." Focusing on questions of language, style, and relationships with the metropole, the paper situates Haitian literature vis à vis Littérature-monde, and argues that Haitian writing has long turned around the preoccupations and issues set out in the manifesto.