Caribbean Eco-fictions: Multilayered Stories of the Haitian Environment

Abstract

Abstract: The duty of care for the nation’s threatened environment, for which the forest and its inhabitants stand as potent symbols, has been at the center of Haitian fiction, as well as of fiction by other Caribbean writers who have set their work in Haiti. The Haitian novel has mourned the impacts of deforestation on both human and nonhuman communities and denounced the practices that have led to catastrophic deforestation and the concomitant biodiversity losses, offering in turn new approaches and potential remedies for addressing one of the nation’s most central problems. The Haitian novel has counseled, above all, political action against extractivist practices and misguided environmental management and conservation measures, portraying the state’s inaction as conducive to the slow violence of environmental neglect. Above all, the Haitian novel has relied on the ecological principles of Vodou, particularly its deep connection to nature, as a foundational source for notions of sustainable development, landscape restoration, and multispecies justice.