Haunted: Poétiques de la Possession dans les Amériques Open Access

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the expression of spiritual beliefs and practices in relation to the mechanisms of possession in post-slavery literatures. My work examines the essential similarities and contrasts in these mechanisms through cultural productions from the French Antilles, Haiti, and the black diaspora of the United States. Spiritual beliefs are closely tied to the notion of possession: fleshly, spiritual, psychical.

I follow an approach based primarily on psychoanalytic theories and clinical applications of trauma (Cathy Caruth, Bari Belnap), of the psychoanalytic Ghosts (Viviane Shapiro et al.), and of the Crypt (Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok). While none of the psychoanalytic works in my corpus deals with subjects from the African diaspora, they nonetheless share striking resemblances with my literary texts. The limit of these specific psychoanalytic concepts, however, lies in the very fact that they have not been applied to my targeted cultural and geographical zones. Nor have these clinical studies examined two crucial notions: the transatlantic deportation of Africans and slavery.

My corpus reveals phenomena deriving from and adding to the aforementioned theories. An important objective in my research is hence to widen the prospect of analytic tools existing for these notions, or to derive new tools from my investigation. I observe major variations regarding the expression of the same theories: the principle of Endocryptic identification for example, is not only fundamentally different from Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1981) to Patrick Chamoiseau’s Un Dimanche au Cachot (2007). My analysis reveals entirely novel morphologies and behaviors for the crypt in these texts. Similarly, supernatural entities like Edwidge Danticat’s Lasiren in Claire of the Sea Light (2013) or Marie-Célie Agnant’s double-sighted protagonist in Le Livre d’Emma (2002), conceal irrefutable traces of trauma formation and transmission originally emitted by Caruth and Belnap. It is precisely in the deviations from, and the prolongations to such analytical concepts that the crux of my dissertation resides: what noticeable contributions could be made to modern psychoanalysis through the examination of Caribbean literature? How could, in turn, psychoanalysis better comprehend post-slavery populations?

Table of Contents

TABLE DES MATIERES

Abstract............................................................................ iv

Acknowledgments............................................................vi

INTRODUCTION: PREMISSES DE LA POSSESSION

EPILOGUE: NAITRE DANS LA MORT BIBLIOGRAPHIE

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	French
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	French
Research Field	European Studies Caribbean Studies African American Studies
Keyword	postcolonial psychanalyse Guyane supernatural Martinique psychoanalysis French Caribbean Literature Guadeloupe surnaturel Americas possession
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Loichot, Valérie, Emory University
Committee Members	Xavier, Subha, Emory University Nouvet, Claire, Emory University Sanders, Mark,

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