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Autopsy in Vivo
Author(s): Nadine Magloire and Beth LellisSource: Callaloo, Vol. 15, No. 2, Haitian Literature and Culture, Part 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 481-483Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2931261.
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AUTOPSYIN
VIVO*
By Nadine
Magloire
When
you
are
from a small
country,
what
sense
is
there
in
writing?
Your work is
read
by several
hundred
people at most, and
then only when
the book creates
a scan-
dal, when
people cry
"pornography"
because they
find the word sex
in the book and
startmaking accusations. We must forgive their stupidity.
No, really
Writing does
not seem
to make much
sense when you
are
a
citizen of
half
an island
populated by four
million people of
whom 90
percent are
illiterate and
99
percent
of
the literate
minority
are
jerks
Of
course, there are other
Francophone
countries. But
they have their
own citizens to
look after.
They
are
none of
my concern.
I
must be
resolved to
address my
compatriots. Even if
the audience is
restricted and
mainly
composed of stupid
people. It was my
destiny to be born
on a
small, unlucky
island. A
piece of
property nobody
cares about.
Especially its own
inhabitants. Why?
Come
on
It's
just like that.
Really, the natives in
this corner of the
world are not too
clever.
If
they
were,
they would know that in order
for
a
piece
of
ground
to
be
inhab-
itable, you have to get off your ass a bit, even if others derive some profit fromyour
work
too. But, no
These fools wouldn't
move
a
stone out of their own
path
if
they
thought that it was
their neighbor's
obligation. Selfish
to the point of
stupidity,
that's
how
they are.
And
this
disease seems
to be incurable.
A
Haitian
writer
should accept not
only
the fact that
s/he has almost
no
reading
audience,
but must
also
face
a
variety of other
virtually unsolvable
problems. First of
all,
there is the problem
of the
language. The
daily speech
of
even an educated Haitian
is
Creole, or, often,
a
Creole-French mixture. To the
point
that
his
language
winds
up
being
nothing more
than an
incomprehensible
jargon
to the
French-speaking
for-
eigner.
All
the
more
because,
in
our
language, things
are
often
incorrectly
named.
Confusion
rises not
only
in a
conversation between a foreigner and a Haitian but also
between two
Haitians,
if
one
has a
greater
knowledge of
French than
the
other.
It
would be
necessary
to
redefine almost
every word for
the
Haitian
people.
But
they
would
never bother to
correct
their
false notions.
What
language
should
the
writer
adopt?
The
corruptedspeech
of
the
Haitian
people
or
the
French of France?And what
France?In Paris
alone there are so
many
kinds of
speech
I
am a
partisan
of international
French, understandable
by
all
French
speakers,
even
if
many
Haitian
readers
are
ill
equipped
to
interpret
a
text written in
clear
and
simple
language. They
feel
more comfortable with their
gibberish.
The absurd
quarrelbetween the
partisans of Creole and
those of French is not
going
*"Autopsie
in vivo"
is the introduction to
Nadine
Magloire's
novel,
Le
Sexe
Mythique
C)
1975 Editions
du
Verseau. The translation is
published here
by permission
of
the author.
Callaloo 5.2
(1992)
481-483
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_________ _
CALLALOO
to simplify matters. After all, why would we reject French
with
the pretext
that it
is
the language of the former colonizer? We have taken
it
from the enemy.
It
is our spoils
of war And afterall, why should the Haitian people be imprisoned in a speech which
opens up no horizons? "You are alienated," certain friends tell me as
they preach
"Haitianity,"
a
word in vogue. Alienated. They love to use this term
in
order to stick
a
pejorative label onto those who do not fall into the snobbery of "national culture,"
of
"literaryCreole,"
of
Vodou,
etc.
I
do not
want
to be
trapped
within the bounds
of
a
national culture constituted essentially of
an
aberrant
cult:
Vodou.
After
all,
what
really counts is that there are Haitian writers, Haitian musicians, Haitian artists. Let
them express themselves as they see fit, as they feel-without
cheating.
I
declare that
all
Francophone literature belongs to me. And
I
go so far as to lay claim
to
human
culture
in
its
totality
The promoters (in their little inside groups) of "Haitianity," of Creole as a literary
and
official language, and of Vodou do not really care at all about the
people and
what
the people want. These promoters want to be part of an elite group, the intellectual
elite and
to keep white civilization for themselves. The people should be satisfied
with
their supposed culture. Thus the promoters of Creole literature draw the
interest of
white intellectuals
in
search of cultural malaise like vulgar tourists. They are absurdly
flattered that the whites
give importance
to "their culture."
Apparently,
their culture
needs
white approval
in
order to exist
at all.
They do not
realize that this in
itself
is
alienation.
I
do not see why the Haitian writer or artist should furnish "exoticism"
at
all costs in
order
to
appeal to whites seeking escape,
a
delicious
sensation
of
being
plunged into a different world. When they are tired of their consumer's society, they
wish
to discover the
picturesque
and
savage place
where such curious
primitive beings
live For
14
years we have been stewing in white culture. Sometimes we even
get
to
the university level, to the doctorate. Yet,we are supposed to continue
doing
"naive"
painting, to
describe
Vodou ceremonies (even
if
we
are
theist),
to
sing "Ezuli-Freda,"
and
to
beat
our drums-in short, to perform
all the
"monkeyshines"
that
are
expected
of
us.
The whites come
to our
island as
they go
to the
zoo.
Some of our "Creolizers" may be sincere. Let us concede that
much But they are
generally very handy
at
turning
a
profit
from
their
ideas. Their ideas
put them
in the
limelight (they are always greedy for some derisory success). They
begin to receive
invitations to festivals and cultural demonstrations abroad And they can make
speeches
to their
hearts'
content
at
literary receptions.
The
people
do
not benefit from
this,
not one bit.
Because these champions of Creole literature
write
only for those
who,
like
themselves, have access to Western culture. "Haitianity" s
the
new
stepping
stone.
And all
those who
proclaim it,
when
you get
down to
it,
distrust the Haitian
people.
Above
all,
one must avoid
opening
windows on the
world.
Poverty, filth,
Vodou, drums,
rum-that is
good
for them. As
for
Western
culture, our
mandarins
are
reserving
it
for themselves. For decades now this poor people
has
been exploited
without
enjoying
an
ounce of
profit.
There is another
even more
crucial
problem.
Will
someone who
wants
to write
be
satisfied to tell inoffensive stories without taking the reality of Haiti into account? To
dare
to
tell
about something rotten
in
this country, to expose
the
naked facts
in
their
brutal
reality, even simply
to call
things by
their
names, those
are risks that
many
482
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_____ _
CALLALOO
people hesitate to take. Here, silence is the norm. Social reality
is full of
taboos.
A
dangerous, explosive affair. One
never tells the truth. Especially the obvious, glaring
truth. As far as sexual matters go, you can merely broach the topic .. , if you are not
afraid
of the malicious gossip of the self-proclaimed proper individuals, who no doubt
imagine that the best way to
give themselves a good reputation is to taint
that
of
others.
However,
when
you
decide to
ignore
the venom
of
these
people,
there
is
still
the little game of the lamebrains who love to indulge in finding out "who's who."
The
writer
is afraid
of offering family
and
friends up to these vultures, these super-idiots
who could never conceive of a
Haitian novel as a literary work meant for their critical
opinion.
What
I
want
to attempt is a delicate operation.
An
autopsy. "The examination
and
dissection of a cadaver in order to determine the cause of death." But for
me, the
dissection of a cadaver holds no interest. Iprefer to wield the scalpel in vivo. No doubt
this will cause many complaints. Is it not logical, however, to perform an
autopsy on
a
living society in order to
determine the cause of imminent death and, perhaps, to
avoid it? It seems urgent to me
to track down the gangrene that is
corroding this
country.
"If
you give
a
name to the conduct of
an
individual, you reveal it to him: he sees
himself. And since you name it for all the others, at the same time, he knows that
he
is
seen
at
the very moment when he sees himself. A furtive gesture, forgotten when
it was done, suddenly comes to
life for everyone to see...."
This was said by that great fellow, Sartre. That is why people who are not
at all
bothered by their own behavior, or more specifically misbehavior, are violently
shocked when
it
is
denounced
in black and white. Too bad
for all
those
people
who
are afraid of
words. Words have never frightened me.
It is
actions, rather,
that
scare
me.
The very idea of certain actions repels me. Butwords were made to be used.
And
when
something exists, why should
we not
speak
about it? In
this
country,
there are
so
many acts deserving to be stigmatized
-Translated by
Beth
Lellis
483
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