The caricatural lodyans in Gary Victor’s Haitian Human Comedy
Abstract
Popular oral literature has always been the most effective means of criticizing authority. In Haiti, there is a special genre to castigate and mock the administrative elite: the lodyans. This short satirical tale of popular origin, with its carnivalesque grip on socio-political reality, is used to inform the population about current events through parody and derision. This essay aims to analyze the use of the accumulative caricature in the social portraits in Gary Victor’s lodyans. The two main characters, Albert Buron and Sonson Pipirit, can be considered emblematic social types, who embody the main traits of their social categories. The narration of their (mis)adventures and the portraits of the characters met through their stories allow to draw up a sort of Haitian Human Comedy, so nigh to reality. This type of interpretation confirms Victor’s engagement, whose aim is to provoke a forced laughter, aware of Haitian sociopolitical issues.
Keywords:
lodyans, Haitian literature, Gary Victor, caricatureReferences
Anglade, G. (2010). Le secret du dynamisme littéraire haïtien. Port-au-Prince : Éditions de l’Université d’État d’Haïti.
Buteau, P. et Trouillot, L. (dir.). (2013). Le prix du Jean-Claudisme. Arbitraire, parodie, désocialisation. Port-au-Prince : C3 Éditions.
Cévaër, F. (2018). Gary Victor : Profile of a Writer for the People. Intertexts, 22(1-2), 55-92.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/743209
Chemla, Y. (2015). Littérature haïtienne 1980-2015. Port-au-Prince : C3 Éditions.
Lévy, J. (2004). Entretiens avec Georges Anglade. L’espace d’une génération. Montréal : Liber.
Nzengou-Tayo, M.-J. (2010). The Haitian Short Story : An Overview. Journal of Caribbean Literatures, 6(3), 37-52. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41411860
Parisot, Y. (2018). Regards littéraires haïtiens. Cristallisations de la fiction-monde. Paris : Classiques Garnier.
Raffy-Hideux, P. (2013). Les Réalismes haïtiens contemporains. Récit et conscience sociale. Paris : Honoré Champion.
Victor, G. (1989). Albert Buron ou profil d'une élite. Tome 1. Port-au-Prince : Éditions Henri Deschamps.
Victor, G. (1989a). Sonson Pipiritt ou profil d ’un homme du peuple. Port-au-Prince : Éditions Henri Deschamps.
Université de Varsovie https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4897-0236
License
Papers of the journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
