Edwidge Danticat: Postcolonial Feminism

It is not necessarily vital, but it is helpful, to understand the concept of Post-colonialism to appreciate more fully the literature of Edwidge Danticat. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1969, Edwidge was raised by her grandmother until her parents found work in the U.S. From the age of four she was raised in a Haitian-populated section of Brooklyn, New York. Among her many publications, she has produced a collection of short stories entitled Krik? Krak!, and the novels Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Farming of the Bones, and The Dew Breaker. She has also published numerous essays and literature for young adults (2). 

Post-Colonialism is a term that reaches across several disciplines, from anthropology, to history, to literary theory. Throughout, post-colonialist theorists concern themselves with the condition and aftermath of postcolonialism--and imperialism: a period in history in which powerful nations sought to subdue, enslave, and exploit the aboriginal people of countries of the globe. Post-colonialists also examine the machinations of imperialism in terms of the "creation, control, and distribution" of knowledge and of power that is used in maintaining post-colonial populations. While we in the U.S. have referred to Jim Crow segregation, the "one-drop rule," miscegenation, and the myriad functions of the white power structure to extend the virtual enslavement of blacks, post-colonialist look at these conditions elsewhere around the globe to Haiti, Jamaica, South Africa, Central and South America. Scholars of post colonial studies examine the way histories of segregation/apartheid, systemic abuses and inequality have contributed to identity formation among individuals within the subalternized groups (2). 

According to scholars at Postcolonial Studies@ Emery, Danticat has been widely acknowledged as the 'voice' of the Haitian diaspora--a sobriquet that she shrinks from, arguing that by referring to her as the single voice of her people, one "ignores and silences the multiple Haitian voices speaking Haiti into being across the globe" (3). Her consternation reflects the history of people of African descent across the globe--including those of the Americas--who struggle with the crisis of identity, of achieving voice and representation, and for feeling an ever-present feeling of 'twoness' that DuBois once described. How does Danticat's attitude toward being named 'the voice' coincide with or interrogate DuBois's notions of the "talented tenth"? On the other hand, how does her attitude reinforce the impulse of the woman of color to "speak herself into existence?" Below, Danticat talks of Katrina, of immigrants, and of the crisis of belonging--and not belonging--in one's native land.