Mimetic Mastery and Colonial Mimicry: The “Candio” in the Popular Creole (Kreyòl) Literary Tradition
Mimetic Mastery and Colonial Mimicry: The “Candio” in the Popular Creole (Kreyòl) Literary Tradition
During the revolutionary period in Saint-Domingue and early independent Haiti, Creole (Kreyòl) lyric poetry representing the experience of non-whites emerged side by side with important political texts by former slave leaders working in tandem with secretaries. In this setting, Creole, a language closely associated with blacks, became a tense and ambiguous field of textual representation. This chapter explores the mimetic claims associated with the emergence of Creole poetry. It first looks at Creole poetics in New York in 1804 and then turns to ‘Candio’, an oblique male figure who occupies a mysterious place in early poetic explorations of Creole and is considered a rival and generator of female desire. The chapter then discusses the figure of the mimic man and postcolonial tropes of mimesis, along with slaves' participation in print culture and Creole poetry's representation of slavery.
Keywords: Saint-Domingue, Haiti, Creole poetry, mimesis, Candio, slaves, slavery, mimic man, print culture, New York
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