Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

(Sean Pound) #1

colonial dévoilé. This means that the Baron de Vastey, as he is also called, would have been


Oswald Durand’s grandfather. The baron died before Durand’s birth, but Durand does mention


his connection to the Vasteys in an article he wrote about his family origins in the turn-of-the


century Haitian journal, Haïti littéraire et sociale.^182 Although he never personally knew


Pompée Valentin de Vastey, this knowledge of his genealogy, having been born into a literary


elite, surely had an impact on the awareness he had of himself as a writer. Durand also


mentions Alexandre Dumas père, the French playwright whose name is also referenced in


Durand’s collection of poetry. Oswald Durand was distantly related to the Dumas family


because Aricie de Vastey was a cousin to the father of Alexandre Dumas père. It is Durand’s


connection to these two important writers, Pompée Valentin de Vastey and Alexandre Dumas,


that Pradel Pompilus refers to when he speaks of Durand’s “illustre parenté.”^183 This dual


literary legacy, Haitian and French, will later be addressed in analyses of Durand’s collection.


I did not, in my research, find any specific information about the career paths or

economic status of Durand’s parents. He did have access to education throughout his youth and


childhood. Durand’s mother died when he was two years old after which he lived with a


grandmother in northwestern Haiti and attended primary school in nearby Cap Haitian. Dantès


Bellgarde’s history of Haitian education states that the 1843 constitution had declared education


free but not obligatory to all Haitian children; he does not specify what percentage of Haitian


children actually went to school.^184 Undoubtedly, it was Durand’s years at the Lycée Philippe


Guerrier in Cap Haitian that are most significant, as it was during this time that he became


acquainted with Demesvar Delorme, a teacher and co-founder of this school who would strongly


(^182) Haïti littéraire et sociale [Port-au-Prince] le 20 novembre 1905: 404.
(^183) Durand and Pompilus 12.
(^184) Bellegarde 223-226.

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