Jacques Stephen Alexis
Jacques Stephen Alexis (correct: Jacques Stéphen Alexis, born April 22, 1922 in Gonaïves , Haiti ; † approx. April 22, 1961 in Môle-Saint-Nicolas (?), Haiti) was a Haitian narrator, poet and political activist.
Life
Alexis was born the son of the journalist, historian, novelist and diplomat Stéphen Alexis , who was a descendant of Haiti's founding father, Jean-Jacques Dessalines . He published his first essay at the age of 18. In the early 1940s he founded the group La ruche , which aimed for a literary and social renewal in Haiti. In 1946 he took part in the revolt against the dictatorial ruling President Élie Lescot , who had persecuted the voodoo cults and was forced to leave the country by the uprising. After studying medicine in Port-au-Prince and Paris , Alexis traveled through Europe and lived in Cuba for a few years .
In 1955 his novel Compère Général Soleil (Ger: "General Sonne", 1985) was published by Gallimard in Paris. More novels and stories followed.
In 1959 he founded the Parti pour l'Entente Nationale (PEP), a radical socialist party. During the dictatorship of François Duvalier he had to go into exile. In August 1960, at a conference of 81 communist parties in Moscow, he signed the Declaration of 81 on behalf of the Haitian communists.
Soon after his return to Haiti in April 1961, he was arrested, tortured and murdered by a Tonton Macoute unit in Môle-Saint-Nicolas .
Works
The debut novel from 1955 owed its success to a "politically-minded audience that was tired of the folkloristic noncommittalness of Négritude as well as of indigenism". At the center of the city novel is the politicization of the illiterate Hilarion Hilarius, who belongs to the lumpen proletariat of the poor district. Hilarion witnessed the 1937 massacre, the murder and displacement of tens of thousands of Haitian workers by Trujillo police, and died while trying to escape.
This was followed by the novel Les arbres musiciens (1957; Eng. "The Singing Trees", 1961), in which Alexis takes up the themes and narrative of indigenism again and, in the tradition of Alejo Carpentier and Jacques Roumain, tells of village life, which is the result of mass expropriations 1940s in favor of American rubber companies and by Lescot's persecution of the voodoo cult. This was followed at short intervals by L'espace d'un cillement (1959) via the prostitute district in Port-au-Prince and Romanceros aux étoiles (1960), in which Alexis picks up on the West African roots of Haiti's oral traditions.
Individual evidence
- ^ Kindlers Literatur-Lexikon Online [1] : Compère Général Soleil .
- ^ Kindlers Literatur-Lexikon Online [2] : Les arbres musiciens .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alexis, Jacques Stephen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Alexis, Jacques Stéphen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Haitian storyteller, poet and political activist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 22, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gonaives , Haiti |
| DATE OF DEATH | unsure: April 22, 1961 |
| Place of death | uncertain: Môle-Saint-Nicolas , Haiti |