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The 2010 Haitian Earthquake: Disaster and the Limits of Narrative

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The 2010 Haitian Earthquake: Disaster and the Limits of Narrative The 2010 Haitian Earthquake: Disaster and the Limits of Narrative Katarzyna Maria Mika Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of English October, 2015 i The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his/her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2015 The University of Leeds and Katarzyna Maria Mika ii Acknowledgements This thesis is the fruit of countless exchanges with the many teachers and friends I have been lucky enough to encounter along the way. It is my hope that they will accept this work as a way of showing my gratitude and thanks for their generosity and unwavering support. The thesis would not have been possible without the careful and meticulous work of my supervisor, Prof Graham Huggan. For his enthusiasm, support, and patience with my writing and ever-expanding footnotes, I thank him. I am particularly grateful to him for helping me think through the methodological coordinates of the thesis and for allowing my numerous displacements to shape the project. My parents, Jolanta and Krzysztof, and my family engendered in me an unquenched curiosity and love for books and far-away destinations. The sacrifices they made are countless and so are the lessons they taught me over the years. This PhD started with an order. Special thanks to Adrienne Janus for setting the challenge and for her faith in me during my time at the University of Aberdeen. Nick Nesbitt brought Haiti’s contemporary politics into focus and introduced me to the work of Edwidge Danticat. The closing words of Brother, I Am Dying were the beginning of a life-long journey for me. His work continues to be a source of inspiration. Janet Stewart always found time and words of advice, both academic and emotional. Simon Ward and Shane Alcobia-Murphy nurtured my curiosity and curbed my stylistic carelessness. I also thank friends and colleagues in the School of English at the University of Leeds: Ragini Mohite, Emma Trott, Jay Parker and Ryan Topper. I am very grateful to Anthony Carrigan for his collegial support and the many conversations on disasters, literature, and Haiti we have shared over the years. From the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, I’d like to thank Stefan Skrimshire and Elizabeth Watkins. They brought coffee-flavoured laughter and disciplined creativity into the project. I am grateful to Charlotte Hammond, Roland Remenyi, Caroline Sanderson, Philip Kaisary and Michał Szczepański, who gave their time and provided invaluable support and feedback in the last stages of the project. Special thanks must be made to staff and friends at the Haitian Creole Language and Culture Institute, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti for helping me see the relevance of my work beyond the confines of the academic world. Jean Lesley Rene, in particular, has helped my vocabulary increase and my vision expand. Mèsi anpil pou zanmitay pa ou! Diasporic friendships forged and sustained this project. Aleksandra Bujwan, Agata Lipczik, Jolanta Lundgren, Sandhya Rasquinha, Francis Thomas, Idoya Puig, Maria Buenaventura, Eunice Ong, Peter Kravos, Robbie Kubala, Jean-Philippe Mackay and Marcos Silveira accompanied me at different stages of the journey bearing my irritation, teary fatigue, and academic restlessness. I will be forever grateful for their encouragement and loving care. A special thanks to Józek who made me smile even at the most turbulent of times. Finally, Arthur Rose has been more patient and caring than I can ever thank him for, talking through just about every idea and anxiety that arose over the course of this project. This thesis would not have been possible without the support of the University of Leeds Research Scholarships (2012-2015). I thank the University of Leeds for having faith in my work. iii Abstract This thesis examines narrative responses to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Analysing a selection of fictional and non-fictional texts written in both French and English, it demonstrates the ways in which literary representations of the earthquake interrogate current definitions of ‘disaster’, ‘reconstruction’, and ‘recovery’ while attempting to create narrative forms that approximate the experience of the event. These representations work towards a vision of Haiti that goes beyond standard portrayals of the country as a place of misery; but they also show the limitations of narrative form to capture the complexity of the 2010 earthquake and other disastrous events. The thesis situates the primary texts at the crossroads of postcolonial disaster studies, Haitian studies, and narrative theory, giving equal attention to the texts’ formal qualities as well as the historical contexts in which they intervene and the contemporary debates in which they partake. The structure of the thesis reflects this mixed methodology. Following a discussion of temporality that brings out the untimely character of the 2010 earthquake (Chapter One), the thesis focuses on histories of space and place, challenging the binary construction of Haiti as rural idyll/urban disaster zone (Chapter Two). It then shifts attention to notions of self and subjectivity, examining some of the meanings that post-disaster reconstruction takes in the context of personal transformation (Chapter Three). Together, these insights demonstrate the relevance of interdisciplinary analysis to our understanding of the social and political as well as geophysical histories behind ‘natural’ disasters, and of the long-term reverberations they cause. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... ii Abstract ..................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 The Immediate Aftermath of the 2010 January Earthquake: Aid and Response .. 11 Contexts Underlying the 2010 Earthquake............................................................ 14 Environmental History .......................................................................................... 17 Political History ..................................................................................................... 20 Discursive Framings of Haiti and the 2010 Earthquake ........................................ 26 Towards New Approaches in Disaster Studies ..................................................... 30 Narratives of the Past, Scenarios for the Future: Literary Responses to the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti .............................................................................................. 40 Trauma Theory and Post-Earthquake Narratives .................................................. 49 Trauma Theory and Haitian Spiritual Traditions .................................................. 56 Narrative, its Values and Limitations .................................................................... 60 Thesis Structure ..................................................................................................... 71 Chapter 1: Time and Temporality in Lionel Édouard-Martin’s Le Tremblement: Haïti, le 12 janvier and Rodney Saint-Éloi’s Haïti kenbe la! 35 secondes et mon pays à reconstruire ................................................................................................... 79 The Time of the Earthquake .................................................................................. 79 Untimely Memoirs ................................................................................................ 84 Untimely Survivorhood ......................................................................................... 90 Formal Temporalities ............................................................................................ 93 The Timing of the Disaster .................................................................................. 103 Objects of Time ................................................................................................... 107 Histories of the Past ............................................................................................. 112 Rewriting Narrative Ethics .................................................................................. 122 v New Beginnings and Untimely Futures .............................................................. 127 Chapter 2: Place and Landscape in Sandra Marquez Stathis’s Rubble: The Search for a Haitian Boy and Dany Laferrière’s Tout bouge autour de moi .... 136 Past Retreats ........................................................................................................ 140 Present Devastation ............................................................................................. 157 A Ruined State ..................................................................................................... 170 Future Reconstructions ........................................................................................ 180 Chapter 3: Subjectivity and Self in Nick Lake’s In Darkness and Dan Woolley’s Unshaken: Rising from the Ruins of Hotel Montana .........................................
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