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Title:
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
Journal Issue:
Paroles gelées, 24(1)
Author:
Murphy, Kieran
Publication Date:
2008
Permalink:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7b14d5wn
Keywords:
Vodou, Benjamin, nonsensuous similarity, metaphor, Jean-Baptiste Labat, necromancy
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Paroles Gelees
UCLA French Studies
Volume 24
Spring 2008
Ce serait le moment de
philosopher et de
rechercher si\ par ha sard, se trouvait id
I'endroit ou de telles paroles degelent.
Volume 24
Spring 2008
Editor-in-Chief: Robert J. Hudson
Paroles Gelees
Deparlmcnl of French and FiancDphoiic Studies
Uni\ersity of Calilomia. Los Angeles
212 Royce Hall
Los Angeles. Cali'tomia 90095-1550
freneon t @ uc la.edu
Acknowledgements 1
Introduction
Apocalypse No\\'( ?): Violence and Disaster Revisited 3
Robert J Hudson and Trevor Menill, Editors
Selected Presentations
L'extermination comme matieve fahiileiise: Les
Bienveillantes on I'art de rendre le nazi frequentable 1
Charlotte Lacoste
Epilogue
In memoriam: Holly Anne Gilbert 106
Professor Andrea Loselle, UCLA
Albrecht Diirer, The Revelation of St John: The Four
Rulers of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, Woodcut, 39 x 28 cm,
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Kieran Murphy
32
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
33
Kieran Murphy
34
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
black
First, Labat voices his ambivalence: these examples of
magic are not entirely spurious, yet not entirely
tme either.
35
Kiercin Murphy
36
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
37
Kieran Murphy
38
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
39
Kieran Murphy
40
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingiie
41
Kieran Murphy
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Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingiie
any other kind of discourse for that matter, operate just like
magic.
To conclude, we will turn to Bracken's section On
Metaphorical Animation (Bracken 75-89), since metaphor,
being linked to the principle of similarity of imitative magic,
appears to have a lot in common with Benjamin's notion of
"nonsensuous similarity." Bracken asserts that "there is a
discursive energeia that yields nondiscursive consequences"
as "the first principle of magical criticism" (Bracken 74-5).
Aristotle attributed the term "energia" to a natural force that
renders the potential actual. Through a kind of necromancy,
energia animates the inanimate. For example, the flower
programmed in a seed needs this animating energy in order
to bloom. Similarly, magical criticism flourishes when pent-
up energy contained in signs or discourse can be released to
produce nondiscursive change. The symbolic torture of a
"Voodoo doll" is supposed to inflict pain on the body that it
43
s
Kieran Murphy
44
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
Notes
'
This article is part of a more comprehensive project which
analyses the intersection of Vodou and animal magnetism in
45
Kieran Murphy
46
Magic and Mesmerism in Saint Domingue
Bibliography
47
Kieran Murphy
48
TRANSLATIONS*
Page 35.
French:
Je sais qu’il y a bien des gens qui regardent comme de pures
imaginations et comme des contes ridicules ou des faussetés
tout ce qu’on rapporte des sorciers et de leurs pactes avec le
diable. J’ai été moi-même longtemps dans ces sentiments.
Je sais d’ailleurs qu’on exagère souvent dans ce qu’on en
dit; mais je crois qu’il faut convenir que tout ce qu’on en dit
n’est pas entièrement faux, quoiqu’il ne soit peiit-être pas
entièrement vrai. Je suis aussi persuadé qu’il y a des faits
d’une verite tres constante; en voici quelquesuns dont j’ai
été témoin oculaire, et d’autres dont j’ai eu toute la certi-
tude qu’on pent désirer pour s’assurer de la vérité d’un fait.
English:
I know that there are many people who regard as pure fanta-
sies and as ridiculous tales or falsehoods everything that is
reported about wizards and their pacts with the devil. I have
been myself for a long time in these feelings. I know moreover
that we often exaggerate in what we say; but I think it must
be admitted that all that is said is not entirely false, although
it may not be entirely true. I am also convinced that there
are facts of a very constant truth; here are some of which I
have been an eyewitness, and others of which I have every
certainty that one may wish to ascertain the truth of a fact.
i
Page 37.
French:
“un être tout-puissant et surnaturel, dont dépendent tous les
événements sur ce globe [...] Connaissance du passé, science
du present, prescience de l’avenir.”
English:
“an all-powerful and supernatural being, on whom all events
on this globe depend... Knowledge of the past, science of the
present, prescience of the future.”
Page 37.
French:
“imitateurs des blancs, qu’ils aiment à singer”
English:
“imitators of whites, whom they like to ape”
Page 37.
French:
“rien n’est plus dangereux sous tous les rapports que ce culte
Vaudoux,”
English:
“Nothing is more dangerous in every respect than this Voodoo
cult,”
ii
Page 37.
French:
“système de domination d’une part, et de soumission aveugle
de l’autre.”
English:
“system of domination on the one hand, and blind submission
on the other.”
Page 38.
French:
Ce qu’il y a de très vrai, et en même temps de très-remarquable
dans le Vaudoux, c’est cette espèce de magnétisme qui porte
ceux qui sont réunis, à danser jusqu’à la perte du sentiment.
La prévention est même si forte a cet égard, que des Blancs
trouvés épiant les mystères de cette secte, et touches par l’un de
ses membres qui les avait découverts, se sont mis quelquefois
à danser, et on consenti à payer la Reine Vaudoux, pour mettre
fin à ce châtiment.
English:
What is very true, and at the same time very remarkable in
the Voodoo, is that kind of magnetism which brings those who
are united, to dance until the loss of sentiment. Prevention
is so formidable in this respect, that whites found spying on
the mysteries of this sect, and touched by one of its members
who had discovered them, sometimes began to dance, and
they consented to pay the Voodoo Queen to put an end to this
punishment.
iii
Page 41.
French
“a été le lieu qu’on avail choisi pour y faire fructifier les idées
du magnétisme, assorties comme en Europe, aux vues de ceux
qui les propageaient”
English
“was the place that had been chosen to make the ideas of mag-
netism flourish, assorted as in Europe, to the views of those
who propagated them”
Page 45.
French:
“Dans la pratique coloniale, souvent on groupait sous la désig-
nation de Vaudou à la fois danses, réunions et cérémonies des
esclaves, même si, â l’occasion, les rassemblements n’utilisaient
pas le rite strict de la vraie religion Vaudou ou n’exprimaient
que de vagues formes de pratique diverses de superstitions af-
ricaines ou d’imitation du mesmérisme que les colons mirent à
la mode depuis des démonstrations publiques du fameux Comte
de Puységur a l’Hôpital de la Providence et assez retentissantes
pour que le nom du Comte fût donné à un bâtiment négrier en
1791, des années plus tard.”
English:
“In colonial practice, Voodoo dances, meetings, and slavery
were often grouped under the Voodoo designation, although
on occasion the gatherings did not use the strict rite of the true
Voodoo religion or they expressed vague forms of African
superstition or imitation of mesmerism, which the colonists
iv
had fashioned since public demonstrations of the famous Count
de Puységur at the Providence Hospital which were notable
enough to have the Count’s name given to a slave ship years
later, in 1791.”
Page 46.
French:
“Il m’est impossible de nier que les loa sent des êtres réels, a
en juger par ce que j’ai vu de mes propres yeux. Est-ce qu’il
n’y a pas un diable? Les gens de ce pays sont véritablement
possédés par le démon, d’entrer au séminaire, j’ai été témoin
de beaucoup de choses étranges. Par exemple, une femme qui
pliait une barre rougie au feu. Croyez-vous qu’une telle chose
serait possible sans intervention surnaturelle? N’était-elle pas
possédée par le diable?”
English:
“It is impossible for me to deny that people are real beings,
judging by what I saw with my own eyes: Is there no devil? The
people of this country are really possessed by the demon, to
enter the seminary, I have witnessed a lot of strange things, for
example, a woman who bent a reddened bar in the fire. Do you
believe that such a thing would be possible without supernatural
intervention? Was she not possessed by the devil?”