Le poète errant à Port-au-Prince : Une lecture de _Parias_ de Magloire Saint-Aude

Cet article offre une analyse de la figure du flâneur dans Parias: documentaire de l’écrivain haïtien Magloire-Saint-Aude (1912-1971). Étudiant la façon dont il se réapproprie de ce trope surréaliste dans un cadre port-au-princien, le but est de montrer que l’auteur essaie de repenser le sujet haïtien. L’article démontre que Magloire-Saint-Aude se sert d’un chronotope urbain double, d’abord les rues pauvres où les personnages déambulent sans but fixe et ensuite les salons bourgeois où naît le désir. Son flâneur haïtien subit un processus complexe de subjectivation qui s’articule dans la tension de ces deux chronotopes urbains. Même si le héros saint-audien essaye de se libérer par le biais de l’amour pour une Française il est à jamais attaché à l’espace exigu de Port-au-Prince. Cela vient rompre avec une tradition d’affirmation héroïque du sujet (masculin) haïtien. ”Exilé de l’intérieur,” Malgoire-Saint-Aude explore un sujet insaisissable qui garde ouverte sa part à l’altérité.

Abilities and Cultural Understanding through Literature in the EFL Classroom : - A Literature Review

The English language can be seen as a lingua franca of contemporary times. Its spread and use in the globalized world has affected most levels of society and it can be argued that, in current times, English is synonymous with communication. This need for communication has shaped the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) syllabus, which is evident in the Swedish national steering documents for the educational system. For the upper secondary school these documents show an emphasis on communication, on cultural understanding, and also on the use of literature within the EFL classroom. The need to possess communicative abilities and cultural understanding, in connection with the use of literature, has sparked an interest to investigate if and how literature itself can be used as a tool to develop and improve EFL students’ communicative skills and cultural understanding. This literature review thesis analyzes five international research articles from different geographical parts of the Globe. The findings are categorized, compared, synthesized, and finally discussed in order to answer the research questions asked, and also compared with the English subject syllabus for the Swedish upper secondary school. The findings indicate that the analyzed articles share a consensus, to a varied degree, regarding the positive aspects of literature use in the EFL setting. The arguments are that communicative skills and cultural understanding are intertwined - enabling each other to exist, develop, and improve. One cannot exist fully without the other, and literature is a good tool to use to develop and improve these abilities. Literature can help develop all skills needed to acquire and produce both written and spoken English, and it also enables cultural understanding and a broadening of the mind. Where the articles differ somewhat is in the ideas of why literature is a good tool, how to implement literature in the classrooms, and what some of the negative aspects might be. The thesis also brings the lack of Swedish studies within EFL to the readers’ attention, as well as the need to do more research focusing on the students’ perspectives towards literature use in the EFL setting.