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© Hartwig Klappert
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Yanick Lahens
Haiti
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Yanick Lahens was born in
the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince in 1953. She received her higher
education in Paris, also studying Literature at the Sorbonne. After
completing her studies she returned to Haiti and taught at the
state-run Ecole Normale Supérieure until 1995. She later worked for the
Ministry of Culture. In 1998 she led the »Route de l'esclavage« project
which, through scientific and artistic activities, dealt with the local
legacies of slavery. As a founding member of the Haitian Writers Union,
which organises readings in schools throughout the country, Lahens
champions the struggle to combat illiteracy. She presents the radio
programme »Entre Nous« and regularly writes for cultural journals in
Haiti and the Antilles, including »Chemins critiques«, »Cultura« and
»Boutures«. On the side, she is a member of the Conseil International
d'Etudes Francophones, an international association for the promotion
of Francophone culture, and has conducted a Social Contract Project
with the largest platform of civil society organisations. She teaches
at the University in Port-au-Prince.
Lahens began her own literary
work comparatively late. First, she published numerous essays on
literary theory, for example on the Haitian writer Marie Chauvet and
Faulkner. In 1990 the first English translation of her essay »L'exil
entre l'ancrage et la fuite: l'écrivain haïtien« (t: Exile between
mooring and flight: The Haitian writer) was published in which she
analyses the special status of Haitian literature, as written mostly in
exile. Ever since the publication of her first collection of short
stories, »Tante Résia et les Dieux« (1994; t: Aunt Résia and the Gods),
Lahens has regularly published stories. In a sober mode in which
feelings nevertheless come across vividly, she focuses on themes such
as everyday violence against women, the living conditions of today's
young people and problems of life in the city. Her first novel, also
translated into German, is entitled »Dans la maison du père« (2000; t:
In father's house) and takes as its central theme the problematic
reappropriation of Haiti's Afro-Caribbean roots. The protagonist, a
sheltered daughter from Haiti's middle class, discovers, to the horror
of her Western-oriented parents, a passion for traditional Voodoo
dance. The story of personal emancipation and searching for identity
unfolds alongside an illuminating portrait of the country, in fact the
first Latin American nation to gain its independence, although today it
figures among the poorest of the developing countries.
In 2002 the
author was awarded the New Writer's Prize of the Initiative
LiBeraturpreis at the Leipzig Book Fair. Recently her third short story
collection, »La folie était venue avec la pluie« (2006; t: Madness came
with the rain) appeared. Lahens is presently working on her second
novel. She lives in Port-au-Prince.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
L’exil entre l’ancrage et la fuite
Deschamps
Port-au-Prince, 1990
Tante Résia et les Dieux
Paris
L'Harmattan, 1994
La petite corruption
Mémoire
Port-au-Prince, 1999
Tanz der Ahnen
Rotpunktverlag
Zürich, 2004
[T: Jutta Himmelreich] |
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