Looking for Other Worlds: Black Feminism and Haitian Fiction

377 Pages·2022·12.451 MB·English

by  Régine Michelle Jean-Charles

Looking for Other Worlds
New World Studies
Marlene L. Daut, Editor
Looking for Other Worlds
Black Feminism and Haitian Fiction
Régine Michelle Jean- Charles
University of Virginia Press
Charlottesville and London
University of Virginia Press
© 2022 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
First published 2022
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Jean-Charles, Régine Michelle, author.
Title: Looking for other worlds : Black feminism and Haitian fiction / Régine
Michelle Jean-Charles.
Description: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2022. | Series: New World
studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022015978 (print) | LCCN 2022015979 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780813948447 (hardcover ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780813948454
(paperback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780813948461 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Haitian fiction—Women authors—History and criticism. | Haitian
fiction—20th century—History and criticism. | Feminism and literature—Haiti. |
LCGFT: Literary criticism.
Classification: LCC PQ3944 .J43 2022 (print) | LCC PQ3944 (ebook) | DDC
843/.920992870899697294—dc23/eng/20220525
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015978
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015979
Cover art: Beny (Blessed), Tessa Mars. (© 2021; used by permission of the artist)
For my students and mentees, especially those who are looking
for other worlds. May you find them, may you imagine them,
may you create them, may you build them.

Écrire, pour moi, c’est prendre des engagements. C’est aussi prendre
des positions. C’est pourquoi quand j’écris, je prends des positions.
Je cherche d’autres univers . . .
(To write, for me, is to make commitments. It also means taking
positions. That’s why when I write, I take positions. I look for other
worlds . . .)
—Kettly Mars
Black feminism has never only been about Black women, it’s never
been this. It’s been about a more just world. And a planet that said
if you listen to the insights of the least of these, which is us, that we
can do something transformative.
—Farah Jasmine Griffin

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Art of Haitian Feminism 1
1. Haitian Women’s Studies, Black Feminism,
and Literary Ethics 11
2. Gran moun se moun: Aging and Intersectionality 59
3. The Ethical- Erotic: Sex and Intimacy 122
4. Geographies of Class Location: Class and Space 175
5. An Environmental Ethic: Land and Sea 237
Coda: A More Just and More Beautiful World 287
Notes 299
Bibliography 321
Index 343