“A Tragedy of Origins”: Jean Métellus’s <i>Anacaona</i>

Abstract This article explores the historiographical functions of tragedy in Jean Métellus’s historical drama Anacaona. Set in Hispaniola during the first years of the Spanish colonization of the New World, Anacaona narrates the story of the eponymous queen of Xaragua and her husband, the Carib conquerer Caonabo. The playwright uses several genre conventions from classical Greek tragedy to add mythical and legendary aspects to his historical account of the Aytian monarchs’ fateful demise. Métellus’s use of prophecy transforms history into the outcome of the monarchs’ inability to disavow themselves in order to save their way of life. This article pays special attention to the function of prophecy and tragedy in the narration of a seminal historical event in the history of the West: the fall of Native Hispaniola and the origins of colonial modernity.