I agree with Dana Luciano’s notion of the “unburied”, while narratives about the revolutions in the Caribbean have tendency to fall into one category or another Sansay, by avoiding the political ramifications of the characters’ journey and makes the reader question whether solely political narratives of 19th century can be considered complete.
Although the Secret History takes place in St. Domingo, Cuba and Haiti then socio-political hotbeds of racial and economic tension, those are mostly swept aside in favor of describing the various scandals involving Clara and her romantic associations. This seems like an odd choice for an author who is writing to a future vice president of the United States.
Michelle Burnham’s argument that Clara’s romantic entanglements are merely a reworking of the transoceanic trade conflicts between France, the United States and the natives of the land. Burnham builds on Sizek’s ideas of the kinetics of desire and how Sansay triangulates them from a larger, global narrative to an intimate one built on the
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The ownership of the islands and the resulting skirmishes with the natives are reflected in Clara’s romantic exploits and Louis’s failure to keep her under control. The Secret History compacts the sexual and economic violence then overtaking the entirety of the Caribbean to Clara’s relationship with St. Louis, a relationship she “repents every day”. During the course of their stay in the Caribbean, Clara is nearly seduced as many times as St. Louis perpetuates blatant abuse on her which is typically followed by Clara repenting her aforementioned sins and promising to remain a dutiful wife. Through their relationship, as Burnham states, the racial and marital violence is situated” within the turning circuit of sexual-economic drive and its production of disproportion and