independence. As with the bulk of the other poems in Haiti throughout the nineteenth century,
these poems are not remarkable for literary innovation per se but rather for the historical and
ideological information they convey. They not only elaborate a history linked to Haitian national
identity which centered on successfully abolishing slavery in France’s most prosperous colony,
but these poems tell us which history, in collaboration with the editors of L’Union, these poets
are interested in portraying. Stephen Bann in “Romanticism and the Rise of History,” argues
that historical consciousness is the product of the Romantic period and that historical
representation in the nineteenth century had an imaginative, subjective element.^139 To some
degree, understanding histories of the nineteenth century involves “suspending the universal
operation of the dichotomy between ‘truth’ and fiction:’”
Another way of presenting this significant change in emphasis would be to stress
that there are two quite separate, though obviously interrelated, definitions of
history with which we have to reckon at this stage—and up to the present day.
One is intrinsic, and the other extrinsic. The intrinsic definition refers to the
development of history as a professional, and increasingly scientific, discipline,
which sets itself apart from the activity of amateurs, however, well-meaning, and
rejects the wider world of historical representation as simply unworthy of interest.
The extrinsic definition refers to something that is more difficult to pin down,
because it is precisely the inundation of literary, visual, and spectacular forms of
expression with a historical tincture.^140Bann is not dealing with poetry, but his comments about history during the Romanticperiod will be useful when bringing historical elements from the poems to literary analysis.
Two of the three poems I will focus on in this section, “Dessalines” and “Au génie de laPatrie,” both by Ignace Nau, were published in L’Union between 1836 and 1838, around the time
of France’s recognition of Haitian independence. The third, Ardouin’s “Le Pont Rouge” was
published posthumously but must obviously have been written prior to 1836, the year of
(^139) Stephen Bann, Romanticism and the Rise of History (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995) 4-6.
(^140) Bann 25-26.