Secrets under the ruins: (dis)simulation in the Haitian post-seismic novel

In January 2010 a major earthquake strikes Haiti, especially its capital Port-au-Prince, and its consequences are still shaping Haitian life, politics and culture. The works of fiction published in the aftermath, from 2010 until today, are a vivid example of the intrusion of catastrophic events into literary production. The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamics between simulation and dissimulation in two novels published after the earthquake: Aux frontières de la soif (2012) by Kettly Mars and L'escalier de mes désillusions (2014) by Gary Victor. In Mars's novel the main character keeps a horrible secret and makes many efforts in order not to reveal it to his friends and family, showing all the contradictions of everyday life in the post-catastrophic Port-au-Prince. In Victor's novel, the function of the apocalyptic event is to awaken some forgotten memories of the past which brutally reappear in the present. By analyzing these two novels, we will focus on the role of (dis)simulation as a survival strategy adopted by the characters to go on with their lives.

Keywords: post-earthquake literature; natural disaster; Port-au-Prince; Kettly Mars; Gary Victor; survival; repression