Jacques Stephan Alexis

Alexis, Jacques Stephan 

Born Apr. 22, 1922, in Gonaïves; died April 1961 in Port-au-Prince. Haitian writer and public figure. He was a doctor and a psychiatrist.

Alexis founded the United People’s Party, the party of the Haitian communists (1959). In 1961 he was arrested in Haiti and killed by the Duvalier government. He wrote in French. His novels The Good General Sun (1955, Russian translation 1960), The Musician Trees (1957, Russian translation 1964), In the Twinkling of an Eye (1959), and his book of fairy tales Romancero Under Star Light (1960) are odes to the inner strength and beauty of the people of Haiti—peasants, workers, professional revolutionaries. His realism, while harsh and acerbic, is also romantic and passionate. His work was profoundly national; Alexis advocated what he called social realism, national in form and tied to folklore.

WORKS

“Du réalisme merveilleux des Haïtiens.” Presence africaine, 1956, nos. 8–10.
In Russian translation:
“Sovr. problemy gaitianskoi litry.” In. lit-ra, 1960, no. 2.
“Vesna pridet!” In. lit-ra, 1960, no. 12.
“Kuda idet roman?” In Literatura stran Afriki, vol. 2. Moscow, 1966.

REFERENCES

Gal’perina, E. “Poeziia i pravda gaitianskogo naroda.” In. lit-ra, 1961, no. 2.
Gal’perina, E. “Lit. problemy stranakh Afriki.” In Sovr. lit-ra za rubezhom. Sb. lit.-kritich. statei. Moscow, 1962.
Aragón, L. “Chelovek kotoryi liubil solntse.” Lit. gaze ta. Dec. 25, 1965, no. 152.
Mar, N. “Ubiistvo ν Port-o-Prense.” Lit. gazeta, Nov. 13, 1968, no. 42.