This book examines the memoir of Toussaint Louverture-a former slave, general in the French army, and leader of the Haitian Revolution-and the memoir of his son, Isaac. The Revolution and its leaders have been studied and written about extensively. Until recently (2004), however, the memoir of Toussaint has received little attention-and only as a historical document. This is the first study that explores the 1802 work foremost as a literary text, a creative production that deploys the techniques of fiction and drama to make truth claims about the past; moreover, this is the first book-length study of Isaac Louverture's memoir. The two texts are read as examples of how black men thought of themselves as "men" (citizens) and, therefore, how they expressed their masculinity, at that historical moment, as experiences of mourning and loss. This study builds upon three areas of scholarship: the tradition of memoir writing; historicist readings of Toussaint's memoir; and descriptions and theories of men and masculinity within the black Atlantic. The study distinguishes itself in ways that will make it of interest to more than just historians: in addition to using the intersection of race and masculinity as an analytical tool, it speaks to the nature of literary creativity and it draws from studies examining the relationship between history, memory, and fiction. As a result, scholars and students in literary and cultural criticism, as well as those in gender and diasporic studies, will also find this study of interest and value.
Dedication Acknowledgments Preface Father of a Nation/Father of Sons A Father's Son/A Son of the Nation Authors of Memoirs Manuscripts: The Production of Meaning and the Performance of Masculinity Chronology Chapter One: First Publications Toussaint Louverture's Memoir: A Profile in Racialized Anxiety Prefacing and Appending Toussaint's Memoir: Exposing the Black Male Body and Diverting Blackness Isaac Louverture's Memoir: A Representation of Black Masculinity in the Name of the Father Reading and Writing the Father Re-Reading and Re-Writing the Father Validating Black Masculinity in the Notes Chapter Two: The Louvertures and the Evolution of Memoir Writing in France: Personalizing the Historical/Historicizing the Personal Personalizing the Historical: Revealing Truth in the First Person Historicizing the Personal: Demonstrating Truth in the Third Person A Louverturian "Family Romance" Chapter Three: Remembered Injustices: A Memory of History/The Fiction of Memory Father and Son: Between History and Memory The Coloring of Memory: The Psychical and Social Construction of Remembering Toussaint Mis-Remembers: Is There a Constitution in this Text? Isaac Remembers Napoleon but Mis-Remembers His Brother From Counter-History to Fictionalization All of Saint-Domingue is a Stage: Toussaint Louverture, Dramaturge From the Dramatic to the Lyrical: Isaac Louverture, Poet Chapter Four: Toussaint's Constitution: Power, Memoir Writing, and the Making of Black Manhood From Constitution to Memoir: A Diagram of Masculine Justice Power, Race, and Masculine Self-Actualization in the Memoirs of Toussaint and Isaac Louverture Chapter Five: The Fact of Blackness/The Fiction of Masculinity: Toward Narratives of Mourning and Melancholia Psychoanalysis: Race, Nation, and Masculine Identity The Louvertures : Resisting Whiteness/Desiring Whiteness The Fact of Blackness/The Fiction of Masculinity: The Body of the Father Like Father, Like Son: Desiring Whiteness/Resisting Whiteness Mourning Becomes the Black Male Subject Toussaint's Disconsolation/Isaac's Loss Postscript: The Louvertures, Haiti, and a Diasporic Tradition of Writing the Masculine Self Appendix: "Le jour de la paix" (Isaac Louverture) Works Cited About the Author
