Fathers, Daughters, and Slaves

Fathers, Daughters, and Slaves explores the unique contribution by French women writers to Haitian politics and culture during the early nineteenth century, when Haiti was on the verge of reestablishing slavery and when class, race, and gender identities were being renegotiated. It offers in-depth readings of works by Germaine de Staël, Claire de Duras, and Marceline Desbordes- Valmore, as well as two lesserknown but important writers, Charlotte Dard and Sophie Doin, all of whom were writers living in France commenting on Haiti from afar, and all of whom were staunch opponents of slavery. Exploring the similarities between the works of these French women and twentiethand twenty-first-century francophone texts, it offers a much-needed new voice to the exploration of colonial fiction, Caribbean writing, romanticism, and feminism, undercutting the neat distinctions between the cultures of France and its colonies, as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century writing.