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Language, Class, and Identity in Haitian Popular Film Culture

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Language, Class, and Identity in Haitian Popular Film Culture

Cinema and Media Studies | College of Arts and Humanities | French | School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Thursday, February 9, 2023 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm Jimenez Hall, 1205

This presentation will provide a complex and nuanced understanding of language, class and identity in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora through the analysis of the Haitian popular film Les mystères de l'amour Nicodème. Language remains an important identity marker in Haiti, and French often serves as a gatekeeper to social status. Using the theory of kafou, a Haitian Creole term meaning crossroads, the presentation will examine the ways in which the intricate dilemma of language is represented in the Haitian context. This film further illustrates the performance of linguistic identities and the fact that some Haitians may inhabit three or sometimes even four languages, in the case of those Haitians who also speak Spanish, the language of the neighboring Dominican Republic; the film dramatizes not only conflicts between the various languages but also that they may co-exist in dynamic ways, creating hybrids of Creole and English, Creole and Spanish, French and Creole, and French and English, for example, as a result of Haitians’ complex diasporic identities. 

Cécile Accilien, Professor of African and Caribbean Francophone Literatures and Cultures Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Kennesaw State University, GA

Add to Calendar 02/09/23 16:30:00 02/09/23 18:00:00 America/New_York Language, Class, and Identity in Haitian Popular Film Culture

This presentation will provide a complex and nuanced understanding of language, class and identity in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora through the analysis of the Haitian popular film Les mystères de l'amour Nicodème. Language remains an important identity marker in Haiti, and French often serves as a gatekeeper to social status. Using the theory of kafou, a Haitian Creole term meaning crossroads, the presentation will examine the ways in which the intricate dilemma of language is represented in the Haitian context. This film further illustrates the performance of linguistic identities and the fact that some Haitians may inhabit three or sometimes even four languages, in the case of those Haitians who also speak Spanish, the language of the neighboring Dominican Republic; the film dramatizes not only conflicts between the various languages but also that they may co-exist in dynamic ways, creating hybrids of Creole and English, Creole and Spanish, French and Creole, and French and English, for example, as a result of Haitians’ complex diasporic identities. 

Cécile Accilien, Professor of African and Caribbean Francophone Literatures and Cultures Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Kennesaw State University, GA

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