identity, but the consensus is generally that imitation is typically relative and to some degree is
even appropriate. As noted earlier, these early editions of Le Républicain explain that all nations
throughout history have enriched their culture through contacts with others and that one’s
nationality is never independent of all influences.^85 Although very aware of the stakes, many
Haitians in the 1830s did not believe that similarities with French literature signaled a lack of
intelligence or innovation. Rather, consciously appropriating French literary traits would
provide a recognizable framework for Haitian literary expression within and outside of Haiti.
The Haitians affiliated with these journals insist on discarding the mediocre names in French
literature and retaining the superior ones, notably Lamartine and Hugo. One writes: “[...] dans
cette infinité d’ouvrages de tous genres qui se publient journellement en France, il importe de
faire un choix.”^86 Moreover, Haiti’s youth means that all that the literary, institutional,
economical, and cultural traditions which characterize national identity occur over time and as a
process of development, hence the question, “la France du 7ème ou le 8ème siècle, vaut-elle
Haïti aujourd’hui? les nations ne grandissent pas en un jour...”^87
The hyphenated word “moi-même” in Ardouin’s title not only centers with extraemphasis the personal nature of Ardouin’s poem, but it also highlights the simultaneous situating
of the subject in both the specific and the universal, in an individual difference that retains
human sameness. This similarity becomes a cornerstone of Haitian arguments against racism
and the continued practice of slavery. In this poem, similarity is also an anchoring point for a
subject whose existence is constructed by opposition and negation. At barely twenty-one years
of age, the subject is already “too old,” and although he clearly sees the bare essence of human
(^85) Le Républicain, le 15 août 1836.
(^86) Le Républicain le 15 octobre 1836.
(^87) Le Républicain le 15 octobre 1836.