“Il acceptait son nouvel état avec philosphie”: Depestre, Cuba, and Popular Expression.

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  • Author(s): Miller, Paul B. (AUTHOR)
  • Source:
    Contemporary French & Francophone Studies. Jun2015, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p249-260. 12p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
    • Abstract:
      This essay partially traces the mediation in the work of the Haitian writer René Depestre (b. 1926) between a high culture associated with his poetic vocation and manifestations of and accessibility to popular expression. This issue surfaced spectacularly in a 1950s querelle with Aimé Césaire, who belittled Depestre's commitment to placing his poetry at the service of humanity by following Louis Aragon's precepts about returning to the traditional parameters of French rhyme and versification. The essay argues that many of Depestre's ideas expressed in the querelle, such as his recurrent references to Nicolás Guillén, prefigure his fascination with Cuba and the Cuban Revolution and his eventual emigration from Haiti to Cuba. Finally, the essay discusses the numerous ways in which Depestre interacted with the cultural production of Cuba in the 1960s, including collaboration with film, publishing, translation, and of course writing. Analyses of two texts, a poem and a short story, conclude the essay by showing that even in texts marked by different decades and widely divergent ideological commitments, the problematic of a high/popular cultural mediation is a persistent factor that provides a unity to the historical arc of Depestre's production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]