Sibylle Fischer is Associate Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University.

“Modernity Disavowed is a superior work. It is not only important but also needed.”-Alicia RÍos, coeditor of The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader “Modernity Disavowed is a tour de force. This magnificent work is the best book on its subject and at the forefront of a new wave of scholarship that is already transforming both the study of the Caribbean and the study of modernity. I fully expect it to become a classic in its field.”-Lewis R. Gordon, author of Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought

• Preface ixIntroduction: Tuncations of Modernity 1Part I. Cuba 1. The Deadly Hermenuetics of the Trial of Jose Antonio Aponte 412. Civilization and Barbarism: Cuban Wall Painting 573. Beyon National Culture, the Abject: The Case of Placido 774. Cuban Antislavery Narratives and the Origins of Literary Discourse 107Part II. Santo Domingo / The Dominican Republic 5. Memory, Trauma, History 1316. Guilt and Betrayal in Santo Domingo 1557. What Do the Haitians Want? 1698. Fictions of Literary History 180Part III. Saint Domingue / Haiti 9. Literature and the Theater of Revolution 20110. “General Liberty, or The Planters in Paris” 21411. Foundational Fictions: Postrevolutionary Constitutions I 22712. Life in the Kingdom of the North 24513. Liberty and Reason of State: Postrevolutionary Constitutions II 260Conclusion 273Appendix A. Imperial Constitution of Haiti 275Appendix B. Chronology 283Notes 287Index 355

Sibylle Fischer is Associate Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University.

“Modernity Disavowed is a superior work. It is not only important but also needed.”-Alicia RÍos, coeditor of The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader “Modernity Disavowed is a tour de force. This magnificent work is the best book on its subject and at the forefront of a new wave of scholarship that is already transforming both the study of the Caribbean and the study of modernity. I fully expect it to become a classic in its field.”-Lewis R. Gordon, author of Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought

• Preface ixIntroduction: Tuncations of Modernity 1Part I. Cuba 1. The Deadly Hermenuetics of the Trial of Jose Antonio Aponte 412. Civilization and Barbarism: Cuban Wall Painting 573. Beyon National Culture, the Abject: The Case of Placido 774. Cuban Antislavery Narratives and the Origins of Literary Discourse 107Part II. Santo Domingo / The Dominican Republic 5. Memory, Trauma, History 1316. Guilt and Betrayal in Santo Domingo 1557. What Do the Haitians Want? 1698. Fictions of Literary History 180Part III. Saint Domingue / Haiti 9. Literature and the Theater of Revolution 20110. “General Liberty, or The Planters in Paris” 21411. Foundational Fictions: Postrevolutionary Constitutions I 22712. Life in the Kingdom of the North 24513. Liberty and Reason of State: Postrevolutionary Constitutions II 260Conclusion 273Appendix A. Imperial Constitution of Haiti 275Appendix B. Chronology 283Notes 287Index 355

Sibylle Fischer is Associate Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University.

“Modernity Disavowed is a superior work. It is not only important but also needed.”-Alicia RÍos, coeditor of The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader “Modernity Disavowed is a tour de force. This magnificent work is the best book on its subject and at the forefront of a new wave of scholarship that is already transforming both the study of the Caribbean and the study of modernity. I fully expect it to become a classic in its field.”-Lewis R. Gordon, author of Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought

• Preface ixIntroduction: Tuncations of Modernity 1Part I. Cuba 1. The Deadly Hermenuetics of the Trial of Jose Antonio Aponte 412. Civilization and Barbarism: Cuban Wall Painting 573. Beyon National Culture, the Abject: The Case of Placido 774. Cuban Antislavery Narratives and the Origins of Literary Discourse 107Part II. Santo Domingo / The Dominican Republic 5. Memory, Trauma, History 1316. Guilt and Betrayal in Santo Domingo 1557. What Do the Haitians Want? 1698. Fictions of Literary History 180Part III. Saint Domingue / Haiti 9. Literature and the Theater of Revolution 20110. “General Liberty, or The Planters in Paris” 21411. Foundational Fictions: Postrevolutionary Constitutions I 22712. Life in the Kingdom of the North 24513. Liberty and Reason of State: Postrevolutionary Constitutions II 260Conclusion 273Appendix A. Imperial Constitution of Haiti 275Appendix B. Chronology 283Notes 287Index 355