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Frankétienne

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Frankétienne
BornJean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent[1]
(1936-04-12)April 12, 1936
Ravine-Sèche, Haiti
DiedFebruary 20, 2025(2025-02-20) (aged 88)
Delmas, Haiti
OccupationWriter, poet, playwright, painter, musician
Notable awardsCommander 'Ordre des Arts et Lettres' (2010)
SpouseMarie Andrée Etienne[2]

Frankétienne (born Jean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent; April 12, 1936 – February 20, 2025)[3] was a Haitian writer, poet, playwright, painter, musician, activist, and intellectual.[4][5] He is recognized as one of Haiti's leading writers and playwrights of both French and Haitian Creole,[6] and is "known as the father of Haitian letters".[7] He was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009, made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters), and was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2010.[4][8]

Life

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Jean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent was born in Ravine-Sèche, a small village in Haiti. His mother was 16 when she gave birth to him, and his father, a wealthy American, was 63. His father then abandoned the family.[5][7] He was raised by his mother in the Bel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where she was a respected entrepreneur, owning her own business to support her eight children, managing to send him, her eldest, to school.[5] He grew up to work as a teacher in Bel Air.[9] At the age of 5, he was enrolled in Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial, where he learned French. Although he excelled in mathematics and physics, he failed the entrance exam for medicine, so he enrolled in an American mechanical school.[10]

He attended the Institute of Higher International Studies in France, where he was taught by Pradel Pompilus and Ghislain Gouraige. There, he first began writing poetry around 1960. He published his first texts - Au fils du temps, La marche, Mon cote gauche, and Vigie et verre in 1964 and 1965. His first novel, Mûr a créver, was published in 1968.[11] He was known as one of the main figures of the Haitian literary movement spiralism [fr], [1] alongside Jean-Claude Fignolé and René Philoctète.[12] He began to paint in 1973 and the first exhibition of his paintings took place in Port-au-Prince in 1974.[11] As of 2004, he had made about a thousand paintings.[9] In 1975, he published Dézafi (widely considered to be the first modern novel written entirely in Haitian Creole.[7]), and from 1977 onwards he worked in theater, producing the works Trofouban (1977), Pèlin-tèt (1978), Bobomasouri (1984), Kaselezo (1985), and Totolomannwe (1986).[11]: 389, 392  In 1988, he served for four months as Minister of Culture of Haiti.[13]

He died on 20 February 2025 in Delmas. The circumstances of his death were not announced.[1] Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said of him "Through his writings, he illuminated the world, carried the soul of Haiti and defied silence. May his word remain, may his spirit still blow. Farewell, master."[14]

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "L'écrivain et poète haïtien, Frankétienne, est décédé" [The Haitian writer and poet, Frankétienne, has died]. RFI (in French). February 21, 2025. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
  2. ^ Merriam, Michael W. (2015). ""Haitian Is My Language": A Conversation with Frankétienne". World Literature Today. 89 (2). Translated by Wynnie Lamour: 22–25. doi:10.7588/worllitetoda.89.2.0022. ISSN 0196-3570.
  3. ^ Haïti pleure Franck Étienne : Le Premier ministre salue la mémoire d’un géant de la culture (in French)
  4. ^ a b "Frankétienne". Poetry Translation Centre. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  5. ^ a b c Glover, Kaiama. "Francketienne" (PDF). Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 24, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  6. ^ Douglas, Rachel (June 16, 2009). Frankétienne and Rewriting: A Work in Progress. ISBN 9780739136355. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Archibold, Randal C. (April 29, 2011). "A Prolific Father of Haitian Letters, Busier Than Ever". The New York Times. p. A5. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  8. ^ "Haitian writer Frankétienne named UNESCO Artist for Peace". United Nations. March 24, 2010.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jonassaint, Jean (2004). "Beyond Painting or Writing: Frankétienne's Poetic Quest". Research in African Literatures. 35 (2): 141–156. ISSN 0034-5210. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
  10. ^ "Frankétienne (2/5) : "Je ne suis pas dans la linéarité. Je suis dans un tourbillon. C'est ça la vie." : épisode 2/5 du podcast Frankétienne, ou l'immense cathédrale". Radio France (in French). Retrieved February 21, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Taleb-Khyar, Mohamed B. (1992). "Franketienne". Callaloo. 15 (2): 385–392. doi:10.2307/2931239. ISSN 0161-2492. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  12. ^ Yacou, Yasmina (February 21, 2025). "Frankétienne, figure emblématique de la culture haïtienne disparaît à l'âge de 88 ans". La Première (in French). Retrieved February 21, 2025.
  13. ^ "Frankétienne (5/5) : "Je suis du côté de la folie productive" : épisode 5/5 du podcast Frankétienne, ou l'immense cathédrale". Radio France (in French). January 10, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
  14. ^ a b c Yacou, Yamina (February 21, 2025). "Frankétienne, considered one of Haiti's most important and prolific writers, dies at 88". AP News. ABC News. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
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Further reading

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  • Douglas, Rachel (2009). Frankétienne and Rewriting: A Work in Progress. New York: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-739-12565-6.
  • Glover, Kaiama L. (2011). Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Post-Colonial Canon. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-846-31499-5.
  • Hadjadj, Bernard (2012). Frankétienne, l'universel haïtien : entretiens. Marseille: Riveneuve. ISBN 978-2-360-13099-3.
  • Jonassaint, Jean (2008). Typo-topo-poéthique sur Franketienne. Paris: l'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-296-06787-5.
  • Jonassaint, Jean. "Frankétienne, Écrivain haïtien," Dérives 53/54 (1987)
  • Oakley, Seanna Sumalee (2011). Common places the poetics of African Atlantic postromantics. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 978-9-042-03408-2.
  • Schutt-Ainé, Patricia; Staff of Librairie Au Service de la Culture (1994). Haiti: A Basic Reference Book. Miami, Florida: Librairie Au Service de la Culture. p. 103. ISBN 0-9638599-0-0.
  • Trudel, Benoît Jean-Marc (2009). L'énonciation non-rationnelle dans le roman francophone des Amériques: les stratégies socio-poétiques chez Jacques Ferron, Hubert Aquin, Édouard Glissant et Frankétienne. London, Ontario: School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of Western Ontario.


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