REPRESENTING THE REVOLUTIONARY: Toussaint Louverture in Literature and Art with Charles Forsdick

Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the Haitian Revolution, is one of the few revolutionary figures to achieve the status of a truly global icon. Serving initially as an inspiration for poetry, fiction and art produced during the final years of his life, Toussaint has continued to provoke creative responses over the subsequent two centuries. This lecture will provide an introduction to this rich representational tradition with which the Haitian revolutionary is associated, focusing on his role at key historical moments as well as his posthumous deployment in major cultural and political movements, including abolitionism, the Harlem Renaissance and post-war decolonisation.

This lecture will be introduced by Deirdre Coleman who is the Robert Wallace Chair of English and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne.

Charles Forsdick is James Barrow Professor of French at the University of Liverpool. He has published widely on exoticism, travel literature, postcolonial literature in French, the francophone dimensions of postcolonial theory, and the contemporary French novel. His book on representations of the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture will be published in 2012.

artist unknown, portrait of Toussaint Louverture, Haitian leader, collection of New York Public Library Archives