UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Fanm ak Pouvwa: Images of Women in Haitian Sovereignty A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Theater and Performance Studies by Eva Heppelmann 2019 © Copyright by Eva Heppelmann 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Fanm ak Pouvwa: Images of Women in Haitian Sovereignty by Eva Heppelmann Doctor of Philosophy in Theater and Performance Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Sean Aaron Metzger, Chair This project analyzes the use of nineteenth and twentieth-century images of Haitian women as performances of sovereignty by looking at a varied archive of literary, theatrical, artistic, and political performances. Although frequently assimilated into nationalist and anti- nationalist struggles for liberty, these representations are not always liberating for Haitian women. I examine transtemporal and trinational representations of Haitian Revolutionaries, the play Antigon, the fifteenth century Taino queen Anacaona, and Ertha Pascal-Trouillot’s presidency. My project reads these representations through Édouard Glissant’s theory of relation and creolization to unpack ways sovereignty, gender, and race are reconfigured in depictions of ii women. Addressing the limitations of discourses of ‘exceptionalism’ and ‘primitivism’ that have narrated Haitian history, my work extends scholarship on Haitian nationalism and feminism to combat the repeated exclusion of women from histories of Haiti. My work draws from multiple theoretical lenses including performance studies, literary theory, postcolonial theory, and gender/feminist theory. I consider the ways narratives of the Haitian revolution over-determine discourses of Haiti, masking the role of the international community and obscuring the contributions of women. The purpose of theorizing sovereignty in relation to images of women is to challenge and disrupt the narrative of sovereignty as inherently masculine. By problematizing the performance of both femininity and sovereignty in cultural performances, this dissertation articulates how gender, nationalism, and globalization inform performances and discourses of Haitian sovereignty. iii The dissertation of Eva Heppelmann is approved. Sue-Ellen Case Françoise Lionnet Michelle Liu Carriger Sean Aaron Metzger, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2019 iv For Charles, Nella, and Bea v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements …….……………………………………………………………………...vii Vita……………………………………………………………………………….......................viii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: Tout Toussaint: Creolizing Toussaint and Masculine Sovereignty………………33 Chapter Two: Antigòn in Kreyòl: Vodou and Sovereignty in Morisseau-Leroy’s Antigone……97 Chapter Three: Anacaona: a Haitian Queen……………………………………………………163 Chapter Four: Li pale Kreyòl: Ertha Pascal-Trouillot performs Creole………………………209 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………274 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a debt to Marie Vieux-Chauvet, the author of the novel Amour, Colère et Folie that first captured my attention and inspired this entire project. I would not have been able to complete this work without the FLAS fellowship, everyone from Florida International University’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies department, and Jacques Pierre who was a fabulous instructor. I want to thank the Theater department and LGBTQ Studies program faculty and staff at UCLA who helped support and mentor me as a student and Teaching Assistant. I am grateful for the academic and emotional support of my fellow doctoral students Gweneth Shanks, Lisa Sloan, Jenna Tamimi, Hye Kyoung Kwon and especially Kimberly Welch. Robin Derby and François Lionnet taught courses and offered mentorship that helped me understand my project and envision a future in academia. I want to thank Michelle Liu Carriger who provided support and very welcome advice, and Sue-Ellen Case who inspired me to think in new ways. Thank you, Sean Metzger for keeping me on-track, telling me that I could do this, and being ever so patient. Finally, thank you to my family, who reminded me why I do this work. vii VITA EDUCATION: (Anticipated) Ph.D. University of California – Los Angeles, 2019. M.A. French and Francophone Studies University of Maryland, 2011. B.A. Theater Studies and French Studies Pennsylvania State University, 2008. SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS: Dissertation Year Fellowship. UCLA. 2018-2019. Summer Graduate Student Mentorship. UCLA. Summer 2015. FLAS Fellowship – Haitian Creole. Florida International University. Summer 2014. University Fellowship. UCLA. 2013-2014. CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS: “Adapting Antigone.” Paper presented at American Society for Theater Research conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 3-6, 2016. “Queen Anacaona: circulating images.” Paper presented at Caribbean Studies Association conference, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 6-11, 2016. “Pale pou fanm Ayisyen yo: Speaking for the Haitian Women.” Paper presented at American Society for Theater Research conference, Portland, Oregon, November 5-8, 2015. “Embodying the Beauty of a Nation: negotiating identifications in the Miss Haiti competition.” Paper presented at Latin American Graduate Organization conference, Tulane University, Louisiana, February 5-7, 2015. “Ionesco’s Expressions of the Absurd”. Paper presented at School of Languages, Literatures, and Culture graduate student symposium, University of Maryland, March, 20011. PUBLICATIONS : “Staging Creolization : Women’s Theater and Performance from the French Caribbean. By Emily Sahakian” Theater Survey 60.2 (2019): 307-309. “L’Expression de l’absurde chez Ionesco: du texte écrite à la représentation”. Master diss., University of Maryland, 2011. A Modern Adaptation and Translation of Molière’s Play Les Précieuses Ridicules”. Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 2008. viii TEACHING: Teaching Assistant/Associate, University of California Los Angeles LGBTQS 183, Caribbean Gender and Sexualities course, 2018. THEATER 103B, African American Theater history course, 2018. ENG COMP 3, Rhetoric and academic analysis course, 2017. THEATER 11, Theater and performance analysis course, 2015, 2017. THEATER101A, Early theater history course, 2014, 2015, 2016. THEATER101B, Theater history survey course, 2016. THEATER101C, Postmodern theater survey course, 2016. THEATER120B, Film survey course, 2014. THEATER120A, Film survey course, 2013. Instructor/Teaching Assistant, University of Maryland FRENCH103, Introductory French, 2009, 2010, 2011. PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Director, Boal Barn Theater, State College, PA, 2011 A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, Actor, Philia, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Center Valley, PA 2010 Brigadoon, Actor, Fiona us/Jane, Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA, 2008 Carousel, Actor, Julie us/ Dancer, Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA, 2006 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS: American Society for Theater Research. Member. 2015-Present. Caribbean Studies Association. Member. 2015-Present. Haitian Studies Association. Member. 2017-Present. ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS: French: Conversationally Fluent, Advanced in Reading/Writing Haitian Creole: Partially Conversationally Fluent, Proficient in Reading/Writing ix Introduction A remarkable and unparalleled event, the Haitian Revolution produced ideas, codes, and symbols of freedom and sovereignty that reverberated throughout the world. Representations of the Revolution inspired and signaled an expansive array of agendas. Artists and historians have relied upon the Revolutionaries to unpack histories of colonialism, slavery, and nationalism. Politicians have used Revolutionary representations to access the power of this historical event. In the African Diaspora, Revolutionaries perform a racial, Caribbean, and postcolonial identity. However, a repeated emphasis on the Haitian men in depictions ignores the labor of Haitian women in the Revolution. Underrepresented but hardly insignificant, women suffer from large- scale omissions in the national narrative and historical archive that contribute to the experience of everyday gendered oppression. Haitian scholar Myriam Chancy explains Haitian women’s experience as, “defined by exile within her own country, for she is alienated from the means to assert at once feminine and feminist identities at the same time that she undergoes the same colonial experiences of her male counterparts.”1 Because of representations’ power to shape perceptions, the attention paid to Haitian Revolutionary heroes generates a narrative of Haitian sovereignty as inherently masculine. Masculine narratives of sovereignty reproduce gender discrimination and risk distancing Haitian women from the nation and its history. In this dissertation, I explore the role of gender in the narrative of Haitian sovereignty through examination of cultural representations of Haiti and Haitians. Beginning with the Revolution, I consider the emphasis on men and the masculine that 1 Myriam Chancy, Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997), 13. 1 leave women and the feminine as the anonymous and victimized masses. I use examples of representations of Haitian women that either challenge or access sovereignty to disrupt the narrative of sovereignty as masculine. By considering the ways these representations perform femininity and sovereignty in plays, speeches, and newspapers (to name a few), I offer a nuanced