AIMÉ CÉSAIRE (1913-2008) was a Francophone and French poet, an Afro-Caribbean author and politician from the region of Martinique.  He was a cofounder with Léopold Sédar Senghor of Negritude, an influential movement in Francophone literature to restore the cultural identity of black Africans.  He found that Surrealism, which freed him from the traditional forms of language, was the best expression for his convictions, and voiced his ardent rebellion in a French that was heavy with African imagery.

RETURN TO MY NATIVE LAND (1939, also translated as "Notebook of a Return to My Native Land") is a book-length poem that mixes poetry and prose to express his thoughts on the cultural identity of black Africans in a colonial setting.  It became an anthem for the African diaspora and the birth of the Negritude movement.  With unusual juxtapositions of object and metaphor, a bouquet of language-play, and deeply resonant rhythms, Césaire considered this work a "break into the forbidden," at once a cry of rebellion and a celebration of black identity.

DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM (1955), a denunciation of European colonial racism, decadence, and hypocrisy, became a foundational text of postcolonial literature.  It profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.  Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive."

A TEMPEST (1969) is an adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" from a postcolonial perspective.  Césaire uses all of the characters from Shakespeare's version, but he specifies that Prospero is a white master, while Ariel is a mulatto and Caliban is a black slave.  These characters are the focus of the play as Césaire foregrounds issues of race, power, and decolonization. 

All Cesaire's celebrated verse is gathered into the bilingual edition of his COMPLETE POETRY, including translations of first editions of the poet's early work, prior to political interventions in the texts after 1955, that reveal a new understanding of his aesthetic and political trajectory.  A comprehensive picture of Cesaire's poetry and poetics is made possible thanks to a thorough set of notes covering variants, historical and cultural references, and recurring figures and structures, a scholarly introduction and a glossary.


The following books are in PDF and/or ePUB format as indicated:

* Complete Poetry (Wesleyan, 2017).  A. Arnold & C. Eshleman, trans. — PDF + ePUB
* Discourse on Colonialism (Monthly Review, 2000).  J. Pinkham, trans. — PDF + ePUB
* Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan, 2013) — PDF + ePUB
* Return to My Native Land (Archipelago, 2014). J. Berger & A. Bostock, trans. — ePUB
* Tempest, A (Ubu Rep Theater, 1992).  R. Miller, trans. — PDF

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