influenced poets grappling with the uncertainties of a shifting literary and political space.
Articles, essays, and letters in these journals in fact anticipate with stunning accuracy the
criticisms of imitation and elitism which have been used to discredit Haiti’s nineteenth-century
literary tradition.
Coriolan Ardouin (1812-1836) and Ignace Nau (1808-1845) were by all appearancesclose friends and had shared much in common.^74 Both were born to mulatto families shortly
after independence in what was then Pétion’s republic. Coriolan and Ignace, along with their
respective brothers, were among the elite to attend the Institution de Jonathas Granville in Port-
au-Prince. This was a small, private academy which emphasized military training, general
education, and classical studies.^75 Coriolan’s older brothers Beaubrun and Celigni both became
known as Haitian historians in the 1860’s, and it is Beaubrun who published a collection of
Coriolan’s poems along with a biographical introduction written in 1865. One of Ignace Nau’s
brothers, Eugène, was an important agronomist and scientist, and more famously his other
brother Emile was not only of the main editors of Le Républicain and L’Union but also author of
Histoire des caciques in 1854, the first Haitian work to focus on the pre-colonial history of
Hispaniola. It was Emile Nau who first published a booklet of Coriolan Ardouin’s poems shortly
after his death. Compared to their brothers, Ardouin’s and Nau’s lives were more marked by
more tragedy; each suffered the loss of companions shortly before their own early deaths.
Ardouin died at just age 23 from complications with tuberculosis, and Nau died at age 37 for
reasons which remain undocumented. Actual collections of their poetry were published in Haiti
(^74) The biographical information about these two poets is taken from Raphaël Berrou and Pradel Pompilus, Histoire
de la littérature haïtienne illustrée par les textes Tome 1.
(^75) Beyond this general description, I was not able to find any more specific information regarding curriculum at this
school.