Hollywood's Haiti: Allegory, Crisis, and Intervention In the Serpent and the Rainbow and White Zombie

Authors

Christopher Garland, University of Southern Mississippi

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2015

School

Humanities

Abstract

The first two republics in the Americas, the United States, and Haiti have a long, complicated history. Not surprisingly, the U.S./Haiti relationship has resulted in a large body of writing, both fiction and non-fiction. However, this cultural output has not extended to Hollywood, with very few films that have been set in Haiti. This essay explores how an allegorical reading of two of these films, Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and Victor Halperin's White Zombie (1932), enables new ways to think about Haiti's past, present, and future. Moreover, the essay considers the function of the "zombie" figure: born in Haiti and transformed in diverse times and contexts abroad, the contemporary cinematic zombie has been largely divorced for much of its life from its Haitian origins.

Publication Title

Contemporary French and Francophone Studies

Volume

19

Issue

3

First Page

273

Last Page

283

Recommended Citation

Garland, C. (2015). Hollywood's Haiti: Allegory, Crisis, and Intervention In the Serpent and the Rainbow and White Zombie. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 19(3), 273-283.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/18686