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Aimé Césaire (1913–2008)

Author of Discourse on Colonialism

65+ Works 2,341 Members 27 Reviews 5 Favorited

About the Author

Poet and politician Aimé Césaire was born in Basse-Pointe, Martinique on June 26, 1913. He attended high school and college in France. While in Paris, he helped found the journal Black Student in the 1930s. During World War II, he returned to Martinique and was mayor of Fort-de-France from 1945 show more to 2001, except for a break from 1983 to 1984. He also served in France's National Assembly from 1946 to 1956 and from 1958 to 1993. In 1946, he helped Martinique shed its colonial status and become an overseas department of France. Some of his best known works include the book Discourse on Colonialism, the essay Negro I Am, Negro I Will Remain, and the poem Notes from a Return to the Native Land. He was being treated for heart problems and other ailments when he died on April 17, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Parti socialiste

Works by Aimé Césaire

Discourse on Colonialism (1950) 823 copies
A Tempest (1969) 369 copies
A Season in the Congo (1966) 74 copies
Lost Body (1986) 43 copies
Les armes miraculeuses (1946) 33 copies
Cadastre (1961) 23 copies
Toussaint Louverture (1960) 13 copies
Et les chiens se taisaient (1989) 12 copies
Moi, laminaire (1982) 7 copies
Anthologie poétique (1996) 6 copies
la poésie (1994) 6 copies
Aimé Césaire (2014) 4 copies
Poezje 1 copy
De underbara vapnen (1974) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology (1992) — Contributor — 388 copies
The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry (1996) — Contributor — 304 copies
Surrealist Love Poems (2001) — Contributor — 94 copies
Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology (2001) — Contributor — 67 copies
Masters of British Literature, Volume A (2007) — Contributor — 20 copies
Caterpillar 3/4 (1971) — Contributor — 5 copies
Antilles Espoirs Et Dechirements De Lame Creole (1989) — Contributor, some editions — 4 copies
Aime Cesaire (1979) 3 copies

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Reviews

A passionate and an apt assessment of the crimes and atrocities committed by the European colonisers against the colonised for centuries that continued to be committed in Indochina, Madagascar and elsewhere, even after World War II. Aimé Césaire also denounces what he terms the "pseudo-humanism" of the Europeans, for they only realised the horrors of Nazism when they were the direct victims of it.
 
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meddz | 6 other reviews | Jun 11, 2021 |
A retelling of Shakespeare's play The Tempest, set on an island where the European colonial Prospero enforces slavery on a mulatto Ariel and a Black/indigenous Caliban. The text pushes beyond critiquing colonialism and into decolonisation. I read Richard Miller's 1985/1992 anglophone translation but wished I'd also had the original French for side by side comparison.

There are some interesting linguistic choices that aren't from Shakespeare, such as Prospero being "marooned" on the island, and the first scene very pointedly has people participating as players literally choosing their own characters: "You want Caliban? Well, that's revealing." "And there's no problem about the villains either: you, Antonio; you Alonso, perfect!" Caliban's first word is "Uhuru!" (Freedom!). Caliban rejects the slave name foisted on him by Prospero, and wants to be called "X" (like Malcolm, clearly). There's intertextual Baudelaire: "Des hommes dont le corps est mince et vigoureux,/ Et des femmes dont l'oeil par sa franchise étonne." And the play's intellectual coup de grâce is Prospero's choice of taunt at Caliban for not murdering him: "See, you're nothing but an animal... you don't know how to kill." Unlike Prospero and his fellow Europeans, Antonio and Sebastian, who have shown they know how to murder motivated by personal ambition.

In the end we find that Caliban has always been free in his own mind while Prospero continues to enslave himself to his desire for power over others.
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½
 
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spiralsheep | 5 other reviews | Dec 29, 2020 |
Imagine if Thomas Bernhard had had personal injustice to complain about, instead of poor health: you'd get this book. I'm not sure the thinking is all that coherent, but the indignation is glorious.
 
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stillatim | 6 other reviews | Oct 23, 2020 |
A short, passionate read that outlines how colonialism paved the way for fascism, and that colonialism is an intrinsic part of European "humanization". Essential literature for anyone who wants to educate themselves on decolonisation - not just of the world, but also of the mind.
 
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frtyfour | 6 other reviews | Jun 16, 2020 |

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Works
65
Also by
13
Members
2,341
Popularity
#10,957
Rating
4.0
Reviews
27
ISBNs
127
Languages
11
Favorited
5

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