The Haiti Exception: Anthropology and the Predicaments of Narrative
Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken, Jhon Picard Byron, Kaiama L. Glover, Mark Schuller, Mark Schuller, and Jhon Picard Byron
Abstract
This book considers the means and extent of Haiti's ‘exceptionalization’ — its perception in multiple arenas as definitively unique with respect not only to the countries of the North Atlantic, but also to the rest of the Americas. Painted as repulsive and attractive, abject and resilient, singular and exemplary, Haiti has long been framed discursively by an extraordinary epistemological ambivalence. This nation has served at once as cautionary tale, model for humanitarian aid and development projects and point of origin for general theorizing of the so-called Third World. What to make of this ... More
This book considers the means and extent of Haiti's ‘exceptionalization’ — its perception in multiple arenas as definitively unique with respect not only to the countries of the North Atlantic, but also to the rest of the Americas. Painted as repulsive and attractive, abject and resilient, singular and exemplary, Haiti has long been framed discursively by an extraordinary epistemological ambivalence. This nation has served at once as cautionary tale, model for humanitarian aid and development projects and point of origin for general theorizing of the so-called Third World. What to make of this dialectic of exemplarity and alterity? How to pull apart this multivalent narrative in order to examine its constituent parts? Conscientiously gesturing to James Clifford's The Predicament of Culture (1988), this text lies on the edge of multiple disciplines, notably that of anthropology, to take up these and other such questions from a variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives, including Africana studies, anthrohistory, art history, Black studies, Caribbean studies, education, ethnology, Jewish studies, literary studies, performance studies and urban studies.
Keywords:
exceptionalization,
humanitarian aid,
exemplarity,
alterity,
James Clifford,
anthrohistory,
anthropology,
Haiti,
development,
ethnology
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781781382998 |
Published to Liverpool Scholarship Online: January 2017 |
DOI:10.5949/liverpool/9781781382998.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken, editor
City College of New York
Jhon Picard Byron, editor
Kaiama L. Glover, editor
Mark Schuller, editor
Mark Schuller, editor
Northern Illinois University
Jhon Picard Byron, editor
Université d'État d'Haïti
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