Getting Some in Paradise

In this essay, I explore how Laurent Cantet’s Vers le sud (2005), the film adaptation of Dany Laferrière’s short stories, “Vers le sud” (Heading South), “Les Garçons magiques” (The Magic Boys), and “Le bar de la plage” (The Bar by the Beach), hints at an evolution of thought within some Haitian communities. I study the way both versions condemn Haiti’s historical dependence on foreign currency, other nations’ refusal to acknowledge the region as a culturally important and independent country, and the lengths to which Haitian society must go in order to win the approval of other nations. I also propose that the film diverges slightly from this bleak worldview through its framing of sex. Meanwhile, they diverge in their prognoses of Haiti’s sociopolitical future, which is evident in their representations of the young sex worker, Legba, and his sexual interactions. Within these pages, I discuss how in the context of the plot and Haitian historical events, Laferrière’s writing of sex projects a socioeconomically dependent future, while Cantet’s cinematographic framing of it hints at an evolution from dependency

Archaeology · Archetype · Art · Destiny (ISS module · Framing (construction · Humanities · Literature · Sociology · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Gender Studies · History