René Depestre

Martin Munro (Florida State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born 29 Aug 1926
Activity 1945-ongoing

Places

Born in Haiti
Active in France; Haiti; Chile; Cuba

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Poet
Revolutionary, Activist

Resources

Depestre's Works

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René Depestre is a Haitian intellectual and writer. Unlike his great predecessor, Jacques Roumain, or his most prominent contemporary, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, Depestre was not born into the Haitian elite, but into a lower middle class family in Jacmel, the southern port town noted for its Carnival, architecture and artists that would continue to feed the poet’s imagination long after he left Haiti. He first came to prominence as a member of the

La Ruche

group of young militants that formed following Jacques Roumain’s death in 1944.

La Ruche

was a student journal founded by Depestre, Alexis and others, and for the two young authors in particular it was a means of attaching themselves to Roumain’s legacy of radical Marxism directed against the Haitian political elite. Of all the…

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1982 words

Citation: Munro, Martin. "René Depestre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12869, accessed 25 November 2024.]