Franktienne and Rewriting A Work in Progress [Hardcover]

Rachel Douglas' timely study offers remarkably insightful close readings of a writer who has for too long remained unknown to all but a few specialists. Moving decisively beyond earlier models of genetic criticism, Douglas' striking proposition is to analyze 'rewriting' as a primary dimension of Frank?tienne's literary productivity. Under Douglas' thoughtful gaze, Spiralism stands revealed as a literature in perpetual movement and self-refashioning, one of outrageous invention and exuberant expressivity that alone has the imaginative resources to articulate the unfathomable terror and beauty of Haitian modernity.An assured and lively study of a neglected writer. Douglas breaks new ground in her analysis of the role of rewriting in Frank?tiennes work; her book marks an important contribution to francophone postcolonial studies, and will be of significant interest to scholars of Caribbean literature in the broadest sense.Douglass study becomes a meticulous reading of various editions of Franketiennes works in order to illustrate the principal dynamics of a spiralist literary aesthetic.In Frank?tienne and Rewriting Rachel Douglas presents an elegant overview of Haitian spiralist writer Frank?tiennes literary praxis&.In each of these chapters Douglas is faced with the challenge of establishing critical order while respecting the deliberate chaos of Frank?tiennes aesthetic. Her manner of engaging with the spiralic nature of both the individual works and the whole of Frank?tiennes corpus is commendable.In her Conclusion, Douglas very generously suggests myriad directions for future study that might build on her work, moving beyond analysis of Frank?tiennes corpus to explorations of the specific practices of other Caribbean rewriters.Rachel Douglass book makes an excellent contribution to this still-nascent body of critical work. Taking the practice of rewriting as a marker of Frank?tiennes infinitive inventiveness and of the changing contexts in which he writesl“!