AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

'Absalom, Absalom!,' Haiti and labor history: reading unreadable revolutions.

ELH

| September 22, 1994 | Godden, Richard | COPYRIGHT 1994 Johns Hopkins University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

9 On Vodun, see C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins (London: Allison and Busby, 1982), 85-86.

10 See William Faulkner, "Appendix Compson: 1699-1945," in The Sound and the Fury (New York: Norton, 1987), 227.

11 Frey (note 3), 235. Joel Williamson, The Crucible of Race: Black, White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984), 31.

12 Eugene Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made (New York: Random House, 1972), 91. In 1791 slaves revolted on San Domingo: "The world's richest colony" was over run in a black revolution whose forces "defeated the Spanish; inflicted a defea of unprecedented proportions on the British, and then made their country the graveyard of Napoleon's magnificent army."(1) By 1804 the Americas had their first black national state, the independent

republic of Haiti. In 1823 Thomas Sutpen leaves Virginia for the West Indies where, in 1827, he puts down an uprising among slaves on a French sugar plantation on Haiti. As due recompense, he marries the owner's daughter and achieves a son (1829). The dates are important since they indicate that Faulkner has the hero of Absalom, Absalom! (1936) earn the properties upon which he will eventually base his plantation "design," improperly. There were neither slaves nor French plantations on Haiti in 1827. Faulkner's chronology creates an anachronism that rewrites one of the key facts of nineteenth-century black American history, in what looks suspiciously like an act of literary counter-revolution.

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
San Domingo de Gusmao. Chapel for slanes. (PAR138808)
Picture from: Magnum Photos Abbas January 1, 1996 700+ words
Abbas Magnum Photos 01-01-1996 San Domingo de Gusmao. Chapel for slanes. Keywords...geographical brasil brasilian geographical brazil. san domingo de gusmao. chapel for slanes. san domingo de gusmao. chapel for slanes. 1996 Magnum...
San Domingo.
Picture from: NYPL Digital Gallery unknown January 1, 1934 700+ words
Wenceslav Figuereo, San Domingo's new president.
Picture from: NYPL Digital Gallery unknown January 1, 1934 700+ words
Discovery of San Domingo (Insula Hyspana) by Christopher Columbus.
Picture from: NYPL Digital Gallery unknown January 1, 1934 700+ words
New York Times Publishes Updated Editions of Tourist Guides; The New York Times...
Press release article from: Business Wire November 15, 2002 700+ words
Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 15, 2002 The New York Times will issue the 2003 editions of its authoritative guides this month. The three publications, The New York Times Guide to New York City, The New York Times...
New York Life Marks Its 160th Anniversary; New York Life Foundation Grants...
Press release article from: Business Wire April 11, 2005 700+ words
NEW YORK -- Today New York Life Insurance Company, one of New York City's most respected and long-established corporate citizens, celebrates its 160th anniversary. After its founding in 1845, New York Life quickly established itself as...
New York Style Premiers Broadway! Instant Win Sweepstakes.
Press release article from: PR Newswire April 14, 2009 700+ words
Snack Lovers Can Win Trips to New York City to See Broadway Shows WESTCHESTER, Ill., April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Style(R), maker of Bagel Crisps...raising the curtain on the Broadway! New York Style Instant Win Sweepstakes. Eleven...
New York City Science and Engineering Fair Winners Announced.
News wire article from: AScribe Science News Service April 22, 2004 700+ words
Byline: New York Academy of Sciences NEW YORK, April 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- Winners of the 2004 New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) received prizes totaling almost $2,000,000 in cash and scholarships today at Polytechnic...
For more facts and information, see all results
©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA