The caricatural lodyans in Gary Victor’s Haitian Human Comedy Cover Image

La lodyans caricaturale dans la comédie humaine haïtienne de Gary Victor
The caricatural lodyans in Gary Victor’s Haitian Human Comedy

Author(s): Sara Del Rossi
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, French Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Instytut Filologii Romańskiej & Wydawnictwo Werset
Keywords: lodyans; Haitian literature; Gary Victor; caricature

Summary/Abstract: Popular oral literature has always been the most effective means of criticizing authority. In Haiti, there is a special genre to castigate and mock the administrative elite: the lodyans. This short satirical tale of popular origin, with its carnivalesque grip on socio-political reality, is used to inform the population about current events through parody and derision. This essay aims to analyze the use of the accumulative caricature in the social portraits in Gary Victor’s lodyans. The two main characters, Albert Buron and Sonson Pipirit, can be considered emblematic social types, who embody the main traits of their social categories. The narration of their (mis)adventures and the portraits of the characters met through their stories allow to draw up a sort of Haitian Human Comedy, so nigh to reality. This type of interpretation confirms Victor’s engagement, whose aim is to provoke a forced laughter, aware of Haitian sociopolitical issues.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 226-237
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: French