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Prelude. Remembering the Songwriter: The Life and Legacies of Michel-Rolph Trouillot

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yarimar bonillaPreludeRemembering the Songwriter: The Life and Legacies of Michel-Rolph TrouillotAs a young graduate student, frustrated with the “Indiana Jones” image evoked by the label “anthropologist,” I once asked my adviser, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, how he defined himself. For example, if he met a stranger on a plane, would he say he was an anthropologist, a historian, a college pro-fessor, a writer, or . . . what? The question seemed relevant given Trouil-lot’s disciplinary promiscuity: he was an anthropologist by training and by professional appointment, but he had written both academic and popularbooks about Haiti, a book about historiography, and (according to his own claims) kept an unfinished novel stashed away in his desk drawer. When I posed the question, he smirked, took a puff of his cigarette, and replied, “I’d tell them I’m a songwriter.” He then crushed out his cigarette, smiled mischievously, and dashed away before I could say anything else, leaving me to ponder (for over a decade) what exactly he meant.Knowing Rolph, I was sure that this was no mere joke, but given my other preoccupations at the time, I filed away the unsolved riddle in the re-cesses of my mind along with the many other cryptic aphorisms he offered as an adviser. It was not until the week of his passing that the memory of this playful exchange came flooding back. It happened as I came upon a Facebook post by the Haitian writer and artist Michelle Voltaire Marcelin describing her reaction to the news of Rolph’s death.1 She wrote:My br other Buyu Ambroise called me today to commiserate the passing of Haitian anthropologist, historian, and political scientist Michel-Rolph
© 2021 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

yarimar bonillaPreludeRemembering the Songwriter: The Life and Legacies of Michel-Rolph TrouillotAs a young graduate student, frustrated with the “Indiana Jones” image evoked by the label “anthropologist,” I once asked my adviser, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, how he defined himself. For example, if he met a stranger on a plane, would he say he was an anthropologist, a historian, a college pro-fessor, a writer, or . . . what? The question seemed relevant given Trouil-lot’s disciplinary promiscuity: he was an anthropologist by training and by professional appointment, but he had written both academic and popularbooks about Haiti, a book about historiography, and (according to his own claims) kept an unfinished novel stashed away in his desk drawer. When I posed the question, he smirked, took a puff of his cigarette, and replied, “I’d tell them I’m a songwriter.” He then crushed out his cigarette, smiled mischievously, and dashed away before I could say anything else, leaving me to ponder (for over a decade) what exactly he meant.Knowing Rolph, I was sure that this was no mere joke, but given my other preoccupations at the time, I filed away the unsolved riddle in the re-cesses of my mind along with the many other cryptic aphorisms he offered as an adviser. It was not until the week of his passing that the memory of this playful exchange came flooding back. It happened as I came upon a Facebook post by the Haitian writer and artist Michelle Voltaire Marcelin describing her reaction to the news of Rolph’s death.1 She wrote:My br other Buyu Ambroise called me today to commiserate the passing of Haitian anthropologist, historian, and political scientist Michel-Rolph
© 2021 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS vii
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
  4. Prelude. Remembering the Songwriter: The Life and Legacies of Michel-Rolph Trouillot 1
  5. Overture. Trouillot Remixed 14
  6. PART I. GEOGRAPHY OF IMAGINATION
  7. INTERLUDE 1. Between the Cracks 49
  8. CHAPTER 1. Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of Otherness 53
  9. CHAPTER 2. The Odd and the Ordinary: Haiti, the Caribbean, and the World 85
  10. CHAPTER 3. The Vulgarity of Power 97
  11. CHAPTER 4. Good Day, Columbus: Silences, Power, and Public History (1492–1892) 103
  12. PART II. THE OTHERWISE MODERN
  13. INTERLUDE 2. Ti dife boule: Radio Haiti Interview, 1977 129
  14. CHAPTER 5. The Otherwise Modern: Caribbean Lessons from the Savage Slot 142
  15. CHAPTER 6. The Caribbean Region: An Open Frontier in Anthropological Theory 160
  16. CHAPTER 7. Culture on the Edges: Creolization in the Plantation Context 194
  17. CHAPTER 8. The Perspective of the World: Globalization Then and Now 215
  18. PART III. THE FIELDS IN WHICH WE WORK
  19. INTERLUDE 3. Discipline and Perish 235
  20. CHAPTER 9. Making Sense: The Fields in Which We Work 239
  21. CHAPTER 10. Caribbean Peasantries and World Capitalism: An Approach to Micro-level Studies 276
  22. CHAPTER 11. The Anthropology of the State in the Age of Globalization: Close Encounters of the Deceptive Kind 296
  23. CHAPTER 12: From Planters’ Journals to Academia: The Haitian Revolution as Unthinkable History 319
  24. PART IV. A NEW DUTY ARISES
  25. INTERLUDE 4. Theorizing a Global Perspective 341
  26. CHAPTER 13. Adieu, Culture: A New Duty Arises 347
  27. CHAPTER 14. The Presence in the Pas 374
  28. CHAPTER 15. Abortive Rituals: Historical Apologies in the Global Era 386
  29. CHAPTER 16. The Interrupted March to Democracy 406
  30. LINER NOTES. A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot 421
  31. INDEX 433
  32. CREDITS 441
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478021537-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS vii
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
  4. Prelude. Remembering the Songwriter: The Life and Legacies of Michel-Rolph Trouillot 1
  5. Overture. Trouillot Remixed 14
  6. PART I. GEOGRAPHY OF IMAGINATION
  7. INTERLUDE 1. Between the Cracks 49
  8. CHAPTER 1. Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of Otherness 53
  9. CHAPTER 2. The Odd and the Ordinary: Haiti, the Caribbean, and the World 85
  10. CHAPTER 3. The Vulgarity of Power 97
  11. CHAPTER 4. Good Day, Columbus: Silences, Power, and Public History (1492–1892) 103
  12. PART II. THE OTHERWISE MODERN
  13. INTERLUDE 2. Ti dife boule: Radio Haiti Interview, 1977 129
  14. CHAPTER 5. The Otherwise Modern: Caribbean Lessons from the Savage Slot 142
  15. CHAPTER 6. The Caribbean Region: An Open Frontier in Anthropological Theory 160
  16. CHAPTER 7. Culture on the Edges: Creolization in the Plantation Context 194
  17. CHAPTER 8. The Perspective of the World: Globalization Then and Now 215
  18. PART III. THE FIELDS IN WHICH WE WORK
  19. INTERLUDE 3. Discipline and Perish 235
  20. CHAPTER 9. Making Sense: The Fields in Which We Work 239
  21. CHAPTER 10. Caribbean Peasantries and World Capitalism: An Approach to Micro-level Studies 276
  22. CHAPTER 11. The Anthropology of the State in the Age of Globalization: Close Encounters of the Deceptive Kind 296
  23. CHAPTER 12: From Planters’ Journals to Academia: The Haitian Revolution as Unthinkable History 319
  24. PART IV. A NEW DUTY ARISES
  25. INTERLUDE 4. Theorizing a Global Perspective 341
  26. CHAPTER 13. Adieu, Culture: A New Duty Arises 347
  27. CHAPTER 14. The Presence in the Pas 374
  28. CHAPTER 15. Abortive Rituals: Historical Apologies in the Global Era 386
  29. CHAPTER 16. The Interrupted March to Democracy 406
  30. LINER NOTES. A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot 421
  31. INDEX 433
  32. CREDITS 441
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