Écrire en pays assiégé/Haiti/Writing Under Siege ed. by Marie-Agnès Sourieau, and Kathleen M. Balutansky (review)

Book Reviews139 Praeger's appreciation for the difficulty of Glissant's thought and for its dynamic potential to keep transcending its own conceptual borders reveals her sensitivity to the dangers of theoretical insularity and reductiveness. Among this book's other strengths I would include its attention to questions of gender . Cogent analyses of works by Condé and Lacrosil reveal how sexuality and feminine desire have gone unrecognized and unarticulated in accounts of Caribbean history and cultures. Praeger usefully highlights the complex interrelationships ofgender, race and class. Finally, a substantive bibliography, a functional index, and the inclusion of the original French for key citations all add to the usefulness of this volume. If I have one quibble with Praeger it is that her broadly defined conceptual framework does not accurately correspond to what she does in the book, and this lack of clarity makes the book's introduction somewhat fragmented and impressionistic. The title and some generalizing language in the early chapters foster an expectation of a more inclusive and exhaustive exploration , perhaps more fully engaged with anglophone and hispanophone Caribbean thinkers like Anderson, Walcott, Bénitez-Rojo, Gilroy, Brathwaite, and James. Certainly the broad influence of Fanon, Césaire, the créolistes and Glissantjustifies Praeger's regional focus, but she might have acknowledged that her venture into the Caribbean Imaginary and her engagement with these francophone authors necessarily constitute but one piece of a larger and even more complicated conversation. These concerns aside, I warmly recommend this ambitious, intelligent book to anyone interested in the Caribbean or in literary or cultural studies as well as to students and scholars of Caribbean literature and theory for whom it will be an invaluable resource. Karen McPhersonUniversity of Oregon Sourieau, Marie-Agnès, and Kathleen M. Balutansky, eds. Écrire enpays assiégé/H'aiti/Writing Under Siege. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2004. Pp 545. ISBN 90-420-1753-8. $135.00. The publication of Marie-Agnès Sourieau and Kathleen Balutansky's anthology of essays and interviews about writing in Haiti over the last hundred years was timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary ofHaitian Independence . The theme common to the contributions is Haitian literary production under the violent political conditions that have besieged the nation since its inception in 1804. Most of the pieces are devoted to single authors: Jacques Roumain, Jacques Stephen Alexis, Roger Dorsinville, René Depestre, Yanick Lahens, Frankétienne, Gigi Dominique, Marie Chauvet, Lyonel Trouillot, Mimi Barthélémy, Jean Métellus, Emile Ollivier, Gérard Etienne, Dany Laferrière, and Edwidge Danticat. This approach makes sense for a reference work, but it does create a somewhat tedious repetition of political, historical, and cultural information from one piece to another. Furthermore, the logic for group- 140Women in French Studies ing the essays into three sections—"Writing Under Siege," "Writing Terror," and "Writing Exile"—is not apparent. All the essays could belong to any of the three categories. Several contributors, for instance, discuss how the terrors of life as an intellectual in Haiti remain long after one has fled or been expelled by a violent regime. Conversely, writers in Haiti often write under the psychological and material conditions of exile. Contributors are from Haiti, the U.S., Canada, and France and the essays are in French and English. The volume's substantive introduction is offered in both languages, as are abstracts at the beginning ofeach essay. A bibliography lists the works of most of the writers featured in the volume. The impressive number and variety of authors and works treated testify to the truth of Jean Métellus' commentary on the different French and English titles of the anthology. He warns us to differentiate clearly between a country under siege, which Haiti certainly is, and writing under siege, which can occur only when writers choose to stop writing, which Haitian writers certainly have not. Questions treated in the essays include: Can a writer remain politically uncommitted in Haiti? Are Haitian women subjected to different or more extreme forms of state violence than Haitian men? Why have literature and the other arts been so richly developed under sociopolitical conditions of repression and fear? Which particular problems ofpublication and audience do...