A Season in the Congo: A Play.

AIME, CESAIRE

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Cahier d'un Retour Au Pays Natal: Return to My Native Land

French & European Pubns

The Tragedy of King Christophe (1963, revised 1970) is recognized as the Martiniquan writer and activist Aime Cesaire’s greatest play. Set in the period of upheaval in Haiti after the assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1806, it follows the historical figure of Henri Christophe, a slave who rose to become a general in Toussaint Louverture’s army. Christophe declared himself king in 1811 and ruled the northern part of Haiti until 1820. Cesaire employs Shakespearean plotting and revels in the inexhaustible possibilities of language to convey the tragedy of Christophe’s transformation from a charismatic leader sensitive to the oppression of his people to an oppressor himself. Paul Breslin and Rachel Ney’s nimble, accurate translation includes an introduction and explanatory notes to guide students, scholars, and general readers alike.

LaTragedie du Roi Christophe

Césaire, Aimé

Born in 1913 in Martinique, Aim Csaire is acknowledged as one of the major poets of the twentieth century writing in French, and his celebrated long poem, Cahier dun retour au pays natal (Notebook of a return to the native land), is his best known work. In addition to containing the most forceful statement of Ngritude (a term coined by Csaire and appearing in print for the first time in this poem), Cahier is a masterpiece of modern French poetry. In his 1947 preface to the first edition, Andr Breton hailed it as the greatest lyrical monument of the age. The only truly long poem in the Surrealist tradition, Cahier belongs as much to mainstream French literature as to the evolving canon of African and Caribbean literature in French. 
The poem is marked by its allusive character, its highly compressed images, and its unusual use of the French language. In preparing this edition, Abiola Irele has tried to keep the needs of the English-language student foremost in mind. The edition presents the complete text of the poem in French, with an editorial apparatus in English that includes a substantial introduction setting it in its historical and ideological context and offering a detailed analysis of its literary significance; a stanza-by-stanza commentary explicating references, allusions, and a select bibliography of related works.

Cahier d'un Retour au Pays Natal (2nd edition) (English and French Edition)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Ohio State University Press

Discours sur le Colonialisme

A troupe of black actors perform their own Tempest. The play explores the political and cultural conflicts opposing the white master, Prospero, his mulatto servant, Ariel, and the black slave Caliban. Csaire's rich and insightful adaptation draws on contemporary Caribbean society, the Afro-American experience and African mythology to raise questions about colonialism, racism, and their lasting effects. From Martinique. 3 acts. 4f, 14m.

A Tempest

Dramas & Plays

UBU Repertory Theater

Césaire’s Tempest, in translation by Richard Miller, is a sprightly and song-filled enchantment. The luminous intelligence of Mr. Césaire’s meditation on the absurdities of colonialism shines through the antics of the bewildered characters.” New York Times The weapon of poetry may be Césaire’s greatest gift to a modern world still searching for freedom. As one of the last truly great universalists’ of the twentieth century, he has had a hand in shaping or critiquing many of the major ideologies and movements of the modern world. In his own words: Poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge.’” from the Introduction Césaire’s rich and insightful adaptation of The Tempest draws on contemporary Caribbean society, the African-American experience and African mythology to raise questions about colonialism, racism and their lasting effects. AIMÉ CÉSAIRE was a world-renowned poet, essayist and dramatist, whose best known works include Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, The Tragedy of King Christophe and A Season in the Congo. He was the founding editor of Tropiques, which was instrumental in establishing the use of surrealism as a political weapon. He co-formulated the concept of negritude,” which urges black Africans to reject assimilation and cultivate consciousness of their racial qualities and heritage. Césaire held a number of government positions in his native Martinique, including that of mayor of Fort-de-France. Césaire died in 2008. RICHARD MILLER has translated many books, both nonfiction and fiction, including works by Roland Barthes, Brassa? and Albert Camus, as well as poetry, many articles and a number of plays. Among his more recent translations are Scent by Annick Le Guérer and Beethoven’s Ninth by Esteban Buch, which was published in 2002. He lives in Paris.

A Tempest: Based on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest;' Adaptation for a Black Theatre

Reference

Theatre Communications Group

"Césaire's essay stands as an important document in the development of third world consciousness--a process in which [he] played a prominent role." --Library Journal 
 This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date. 
 Aimé 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." Here, Césaire reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality are extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society." An interview with Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.

Discourse on Colonialism

History

World

Monthly Review+press

French-English-bilingual-edition-Andre-Breton-called-Cesaires-Cahier-nothing-less-than-the-greatest-lyrical-monument-of-this-time-It-is-a-seminal-text-in-Surrealist-French-and-Black-literatures-published-in-full-in-English-for-the-first-time-in-Bloodaxes-bilingual-Contemporary-French-Poets-series-Aime-Cesaire-1913-2008-was-born-in-in-Basse-Pointe-a-village-on-the-north-coast-of-Martinique-a-former-French-colony-in-the-Caribbean-now-an-overseas-departement-of-France-His-book-Discourse-on-Colonialism-1950-is-a-classic-of-French-political-literature-Notebook-of-a-Return-to-My-Native-Land-1956-is-the-foundation-stone-of-francophone-Black-literature-it-is-here-that-the-word-Negritude-appeared-for-the-first-time-Negritude-has-come-to-mean-the-cultural-philosophical-and-political-movement-co-founded-in-Paris-in-the-1930s-by-three-Black-students-from-French-colonies-the-poets-Leon-Gontran-Damas-from-French-Guiana-Leopold-Senghor-later-President-of-Senegal-and-Aime-Cesaire-who-became-a-deputy-in-the-French-National-Assembly-for-the-Revolutionary-Party-of-Martinique-and-was-repeatedly-elected-Mayor-of-Fort-de-FranceAs-a-poet-Cesaire-believed-in-the-revolutionary-power-of-language-and-in-the-Notebook-he-combined-high-literary-French-with-Martinican-colloquialisms-and-archaic-turns-of-phrase-with-dazzling-new-coinages-The-result-is-a-challenging-and-deeply-moving-poem-on-the-theme-of-the-future-of-the-negro-race-which-presents-and-enacts-the-poignant-search-for-a-Martinican-identity-The-Notebook-opposes-the-ideology-of-colonialism-by-inventing-a-language-that-refuses-assimilation-to-a-dominant-cultural-norm-a-language-that-teaches-resistance-and-liberation

Return to My Native Land

Poetry

Bloodaxe Books

Une tempête

POINTS

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