Marvelous History :  Aesthetics in the Art of Edouard Duval Carrie 

There has been a robust debate in the history of Caribbean poetics and art about marvelous realism . Beginning with Alejo Carpentier’s  1949 lecture , “On the Marvelous Real in America “ in which he argued for a “ marvelous American reality “ and continuing with the writings of Rene Menil and Suzanne Cesaire in the journal Tropiques in Martinique , this debate shaped the literary and poetic aesthetics of Caribbean literature . In 1956 Stephen Alexis suggested that Haitian art should be described as “marvelous realism.”  The application of the term to visual art opened up a space for working through a Caribbean aesthetic  which did not draw from the categories of European art history . This talk will argue that the art of Edouard Duval Carrie creates a new form of the marvelous  in which history and memory works to make new forms and create different aesthetic practices.

Anthony Bogues

Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory

Director, Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice

Professor, Africana Studies

Brown University

 Visiting Professor &Curator, University of Johannesburg .

Conference in English with simultaneous translation

Free activity, without reservation