Making the Black Jacobins
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
CLR James and the Black Jacobins
Atlantic Studies Global Currents ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjas20 Unsilencing the Haitian Revolution: C. L. R. James and The Black Jacobins Rachel Douglas To cite this article: Rachel Douglas (2020): Unsilencing the Haitian Revolution: C. L. R. James and TheBlackJacobins , Atlantic Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2020.1839283 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2020.1839283 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 19 Nov 2020. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjas20 ATLANTIC STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2020.1839283 Unsilencing the Haitian Revolution: C. L. R. James and The Black Jacobins Rachel Douglas French and Comparative Literature, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Glasgow, UK ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Exploring the genesis, transformation and afterlives of The Black Rewriting; Haitian Jacobins, this article follows the revision trail of James’s evolving Revolution; Toussaint interest in Toussaint Louverture. How does James “show” as Louverture; Caribbean; drama versus “tell” as history? Building on Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s theatre/drama; history from below idea of “silencing the past,” this article argues that James engages in an equally active and transitive reverse process of unsilencing the past. James’s own unsilencing of certain negative representations of the Haitian Revolution is evaluated, as is James’s move away from presenting the colonized as passive objects, instead turning them instead into active subjects. -
Slavery, Capitalism, and the “Proletariat”
1 1 The Slave-Machine: Slavery, Capital- ism, and the “Proletariat” in The Black Jacobins and Capital Nick Nesbitt This essay argues that C. L. R. James’s Marxist humanism is inherently inade- quate for describing the distinction and transition between slavery and capitalism. To do so, the essay interrogates James’s famous claim in The Black Jacobins (1938) that the slaves of St. Domingue were “closer to a modern proletariat than any group of workers in existence at the time,” by comparing James’s understand- ing of the concept of proletariat—there and in World Revolution (1937)—with Marx’s various developments of the concept across the three volumes of Capital. This analysis distinguishes James’s political and historicist deployment of the term from Marx’s analytical usage of the notion in his categorial critique of capitalism.In contrast with James’s linear, Marxist-humanist understanding of the passage from slavery to capitalism, Marx himself demarcates a well-defined delineation between these two basic categories, understood in Capital as analytically (as opposed to historically) distinct modes of production.The essay thus concludes by analyzing Marx’s conceptual differentiation of slavery and industrial capitalism in Capital, drawing on Etienne Balibar’s analysis of the concepts of mode of production and transition in Reading Capital (1965). The slaves worked on the land, and, like revolutionary peasants everywhere, they aimed at the extermination of their oppressors. But working and living together in gangs of hundreds on the huge sugar-factories which covered the North Plain, they were closer to a modern proletariat than any group of workers in existence at the time, and the rising was, therefore, a thoroughly prepared and organized mass movement. -
LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Making the Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History by Rachel Douglas Page 1 of 3
LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Making The Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History by Rachel Douglas Page 1 of 3 Book Review: Making The Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History by Rachel Douglas In Making The Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History, Rachel Douglas examines the formation of James’s groundbreaking work on the Haitian Revolution, exploring its genesis, transformations and afterlives through its different texts, stagings and editions. Positioning The Black Jacobins as a ‘palimpsestually multilayered text-network’ formed through processes of rewriting and revision, this book is a welcome addition to scholarship on James and offers a thoughtful approach to the relationship between Marxist theory and historical analysis, writes Scott Timcke. Making The Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History. Rachel Douglas. Duke University Press. 2019. There are many ways to look at the relationship between Marxist theory and historical analysis. Through ‘telling the story of the actual writing of The Black Jacobins’ (5), Rachel Douglas offers one of the more thoughtful approaches to that relationship in recent years. Her goal is to show how C. L. R. James (1901-89), one of the preeminent social theorists of the twentieth century (see Bridget Brereton 2014), used several theatrical and historiographical iterations to reform his representation of the past. ‘My task has been to trace the process of The Black Jacobins’ own development’, Douglas writes, ‘working out its form of movement and method of change’ (211). This involves comparative readings of four main texts, these being the play text Toussaint Louverture (1936), the first and second editions of The Black Jacobins (1938 and 1963) and a second play text, The Black Jacobins (1967). -
'A Very Hell of Horrors'? the Haitian Revolution and the Early Transatlantic Haitian Gothic Raphael Hoermann Published Onlin
Article ‘A Very Hell of Horrors’? The Haitian Revolution and the Early Transatlantic Haitian Gothic Hoermann, Raphael Available at http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/13535/ Hoermann, Raphael ORCID: 0000-0001-6156-8431 (2015) ‘A Very Hell of Horrors’? The Haitian Revolution and the Early Transatlantic Haitian Gothic. Slavery & Abolition: A journal of slave and post-slave studies, 37 (1). pp. 183- 205. ISSN 0144-039X It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2015.1086083 For more information about UCLan’s research in this area go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/researchgroups/ and search for <name of research Group>. For information about Research generally at UCLan please go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/ All outputs in CLoK are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including Copyright law. Copyright, IPR and Moral Rights for the works on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the policies page. CLoK Central Lancashire online Knowledge www.clok.uclan.ac.uk ‘A Very Hell of Horrors’? The Haitian Revolution and the Early Transatlantic Haitian Gothic Raphael Hoermann Ascription: Raphael Hoermann is the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Institute of Black Atlantic Research, School of Language, Literature and International Studies, University of Central Lancashire, Harrington 248, Preston PR1 2HE, U.K. Email: [email protected] Published online (24/9/2015) in Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2015.1086083 1 Abstract: This article explores the Gothicisation of the Haitian Revolution in the transatlantic discourse during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. -
1 Erin Zavitz and Laurent Dubois, the NEH Collaborative Grant, 2014 1
1 Thomas Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince: Imp de J. Courtois, 1847) Tome 1 Edited and translated by Laurent Dubois and Erin Zavitz Even before insurgent leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti’s independence on January 1, 1804 a plethora of texts were circulating in the Americas and Europe on the revolution in the French colony of Saint Domingue. Over the next decades, Haitian authors took up the challenge of responding to these foreign publications writing their own history of the nation’s founding. One of the seminal works of Haiti’s emerging historiographic tradition is the eight volume Histoire d’Haïti by Thomas Madiou. Published in Port-au-Prince in two installments in 1847 and 1848, the volumes were the first definitive history of Haiti from 1492 to 1846. The translations are from the original publication which I selected because it is now freely available on Google books. Henri Deschamps, a Haitian publishing house, released a more recent reprint between 1988 and 1991 but only limited copies are still available for purchase or held by U.S. libraries. For individuals familiar with the Deschamps edition, the pagination of the 1847/48 Google edition is slightly different. Born in Haiti in 1814 to a mixed race family, Madiou attended school in France from the age of 10. Upon returning to Haiti as an adult, he began publishing articles in Port-au-Prince newspapers only to realize the need for a complete history. Madiou set about reading available print sources and, more importantly, interviewing aging soldiers who fought in the revolution. -
Lectures on the Black Jacobins
Lectures Of\ The BlacR Jacobirls C.L.R. James How I WROTE THE BLACK JAcos1Ns (\4 )LINE \9]1) The Blackja cobins- how I came to write this book and what is in the book, what did I think was in the book when I wrote it and what do I find in the book now - all these 1 are veryint erestingquestions not only to you but to me. I came to England from the West Indies in 1932. I was then thirty-oneyears old. I had been educated at Queen's Royal College, which provided me with a very good education. It didn't suit the West Indies, and those of us who got that type of education had to come abroad wherewe astonishedeverybody wi th the things that we knew. I learnt Latin, I learnt French, I learnt Greek, I learnt Roman history, I learnt Greek history. I studied the history of French literature, English literature (I did some 1 C.L.R.James, The B"1clt ]«obins: ToUSSllintL "Ouvmurtanti tht San Domingo &volution (London: Secker and Warburg. 1938; 2d ed., rev. NewYork: Vintage Books, 1963; reprint, London: Allison and Busby, 1980). Subsequent references appear in brackccs in che ccxc. Page references arc co chc 1963 edition. SmallAxe 8, September 2000: pp. 65-112 ISSN 0799-0537 science - I played about with it, buc there ic was). I reallyhad an excellenceducation co prepare me for being a British incelleccual. But I remained in the Caribbean for another thirteen years reaching at Queen's Royal College and reading hard. -
Thornton on Douglas, 'Making the Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History'
H-Africa Thornton on Douglas, 'Making The Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History' Review published on Thursday, February 18, 2021 Rachel Douglas. Making The Black Jacobins: C. L. R. James and the Drama of History. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019. 320 pp. $104.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4780-0427-1; $27.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4780-0487-5. Reviewed by John K. Thornton (Boston University)Published on H-Africa (February, 2021) Commissioned by David D. Hurlbut (Independent Scholar) Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55901 I recall clearly seeing the cover of C. L. R. James’s Black Jacobins in the window of Follett’s bookstore in Ann Arbor just before Christmas break in 1968. A similar picture, drawn from the same source, adorns the cover of Rachel Douglas’s finely researched history of that book and the larger project it was embedded in. I bought it instantly and read it on my flight back home, and I can safely say that it helped shape me as a historian. I was delighted to read Douglas’s book. Douglas reveals what the vast majority of readers do not know, that the book was a long-term project of James’s spanning over thirty years and producing plays as well as books and articles. She does a great service to all who admire, even with some skepticism, a book that has been so influential and can remain in print and be relevant nearly a century later. The subtitle of the book makes it clear that Black Jacobins was as much, or perhaps more, a drama as it was a historical text, even though the plays that drove it were not widely performed, and only long after the first appearance of the text. -
Book Review: Making of the Black Jacobins: C.L.R. James and the Drama of History by Rachel Douglas
International Social Science Review Volume 96 Issue 2 Article 13 Book Review: Making of the Black Jacobins: C.L.R. James and the Drama of History by Rachel Douglas Patricia M. Muhammad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr Part of the Anthropology Commons, Communication Commons, Economics Commons, Geography Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, Political Science Commons, and the Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Muhammad, Patricia M. () "Book Review: Making of the Black Jacobins: C.L.R. James and the Drama of History by Rachel Douglas," International Social Science Review: Vol. 96 : Iss. 2 , Article 13. Available at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol96/iss2/13 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Social Science Review by an authorized editor of Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository. Muhammad: Book Review: Making of the Black Jacobins Douglas, Rachel. Making of the Black Jacobins: C.L.R. James and the Drama of History. Duke University Press, 2019. 320 pages. Paperback, $27.95. Cyril Lionel Robert James (C.L.R. James), a West Indian native born on the cusp of the twentieth century, grew to adhere to the political and social ideology of Karl Marx. The United States had already considered Communism a revolutionary ideology as it had a subtle stronghold among black intellectuals such as W.E.B. DuBois. Thus, these two revolutionaries' philosophies converged into the same goal, to liberate a people from systemic oppression. -
I'empereur De Russie
Irtt;.:;44:... -·- .......·~-"""'1.""' • .,..,.,.'''~''.' .....,......, •.~. -""" .~ ,. II! ,LOUIS E. ELIE ED. Ef'TE~ Am . · p l\lNC~, 11 J><)RT -:.. A!U Le President. Boyer et I I I'Empereur de Russie -. ,I Alexandre Ier.: , .~!I' • '."! (Une Mission dip~omatique -. a Saint-Petersbourg en 1821.) Imprimerie du College Vertieres . Port·au.Prince, Haiti• .-Prix: G. 2.50 L.,.../- -- • ..~~~ ., , (}4~1L-- 'I LOUIS E. ELIE . e President Boyer et • I .I'Empereur de Russie I Alexandre Ier. (Une Mission diplomatique a Saint-Petersbourg en 1821.) Imprimerie du College Vertierel Port.au.Prince, HaitL Prix: G. 2.50 ---- _ ~ _________________ ,_v-- --- - ---- --------~I , I .1. Port-au-Prince: le 30 Mars 191,2 Son Excellence Monsieur Elie LESCOT, President d' Haiti. Palais National. Monsieur le President, Les documents ined1.ts ou devenus tres rares qui constituent le fond de cette etude serviront peut-etre, unjour, a l' examen de divers problemes, . Et parce que vous avez l'esprit politique tres lucide et tres clair, tout me jait esperer que ce petit ouvrage peut aider a prectser l' etat actuel et l' avenir probable de certaines qU6S tions economiques. Je vous l' oUre avec plaisir, Monpieur le President ; acceptez en la dedicace comme un hommage avos qualites de decision et de virilite. .. < J'ai l'espoir qu'il neBera pas trop indigne d'un si grand , parrain. Veuillez agreer, Monsienr le President, l'expressio n de ma respectueuse gratitude. ! Louis E. ELIE, ':~\ ,"" 01 I' 1 ~. iV? I,~~~~. _~ _____ ~~.--.-- I I I I I I I I , I " I I . I , I I I I " ---- -~---, I. I I La Revolte des Esclaves I Apres l'as'Jassinat de Vincent Oge. -
Property, Personhood and the Archive in Nineteenth
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “Free of Everything Save Independence”: Property, Personhood and the Archive in Nineteenth- Century Haiti A dissertation in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Winter Rae Schneider 2018 © Copyright by Winter Rae Schneider 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “Free of Everything Save Independence”: Property, Personhood and the Archive in Nineteenth- Century Haiti by Winter Rae Schneider Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Lauren Derby, Chair Scholarship on slavery and emancipation in the Caribbean has wrestled with how to characterize freedom after slavery as it was experienced by freed populations. “Freedom” itself as a metric for understanding life after slavery has been effectively problematized as it represented the continuation of forms of control and violence—albeit in different terms—that racialized and marginalized freed populations even though they were free. More recent scholarship within this field has turned to material culture as a way to historicize freed people’s lives and agendas as the terms through which they understood and approached liberation from bondage. Haitian history after the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) represents a significant absence in this field, although it represents the first regional instance of neo-imperialism and racialization under national authority after slavery in the region. Premised on a perceived absence of archival documentation that can speak to Haiti’s internal struggles, the first half of the nineteenth century in the country has been understood through romanticized narratives of an idyllic, cooperative, rural society on ii the one hand, and a repressive militarized state on the other. -
Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects in Nineteenth-Century Haiti by Amy Reinsel B.A. Indiana University, Bloo
Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects in Nineteenth-century Haiti by Amy Reinsel B.A. Indiana University, Bloomington, 1993 M. A. University of Pittsburgh, 2000 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Amy Reinsel It was defended on July 30, 2008 and approved by Dr. Seymour Derscher, Professor, Department of History Dr. Roberta Hatcher, Assistant Professor, Department of French and Italian Dr. Philip Watts, Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Giuseppina Mecchia, Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian ii POETRY OF REVOLUTION: ROMANTICISM AND NATIONAL PROJECTS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY HAITI Amy Reinsel, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 This dissertation examines the largely dismissed nineteenth-century tradition of Romantic poetry in Haiti from the 1830s to the 1890s. I synthesize the conclusions of various studies prompted by the 2004 Haitian bicentennial in order to challenge the claims that nineteenth- century Haitian poems are banal parodies of French texts and simple preludes to twentieth- Copyright © by Amy Reinsel 2008 century Haiti literature. I argue that imitation becomes an impossible label with which to understand the complexities of Haitian poetry and national sentiment. Considering Haiti’s ambiguous relationship to modernity and the clairvoyance with which Haitian poets expressed national concerns, Haitian poetry constitutes a deliberate practice in the construction, legitimization and expression of national identity. In each of the three chapters I rely on historical context in order to situate the poetry and examine it through textual analysis. -
Winter 2021 Newsletter
Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy NEWSLETTER I WINTER 2021 The We’ve lost track of how many times we’ve uttered some version of this statement, but it’s one that’s true enough that it warrants repeating: Fall 2020 was a different kind of semester. Typically scheduled Google calendar wall-to- Google calendar wall with classes, our seminar room on the fourth floor of Jesse was largely vacant from the time the semester opened in August to when it closed in December. Typically worked to (and, in some cases, beyond) its breaking point, nary a gurgle came from the Keurig. On all fronts, though, the show went on, and nowhere was this clearer than among our undergraduates, who, in the understatement of the year, gamely adapted to a After achieving the rare “five talks in new normal and breathed energy into difficult times. Our Society of Fellows was as five Fridays” feat in October, the pace active as ever, gathering for a week of Mount Vernon-sponsored talks on “Elections of programming relented somewhat that Shaped the American Presidency,” a post-election autopsy with Kinder Institute in the semester’s final two months, Endowed Chair Jay Sexton, and a trio of one-read events: on Baldwin’s “Letter to with a pair of November talks My Nephew” with Kinder Institute Assistant Professor Jennie Ikuta; on wrongful followed by a December 4 send-off convictions with Kinder Institute Swiss Army Knife Caroline Spalding; and on the to Fall 2020 featuring University of free labor politics of Reconstruction with KICD Distinguished Visiting Research Pennsylvania Roy F.