Synonyms
Definition
This essay explores the life and work of French poet, author, politician, and philosopher Aimé Césaire (1913–2008).
Born on 26 June 1913 into a modest family of Basse-Pointe, Martinique (then, a French colony), Aimé Césaire was a brilliant student at the Lycée Schoelcher, Fort de France. Leaving for Paris with a scholarship to attend the prestigious Lycée Louis le Grand in Paris, he met the future poet and Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor who became his closest friend. In Paris, Césaire discovered that he was a ‘Negro’ (he confessed later that until he left Martinique in 1931 he did not know what it meant to be black) and African. In 1934 Césaire founded with Senghor and Léon Gontran Damas the journal L’Étudiant Noir(Black student) and developed the concept of ‘Negritude’, embracing blackness and African-ness to counter a legacy of colonial self-hatred. In June 1935, Césaire entered the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Assemblé Nationale. Discours à l’Assemblée nationale 11 juillet 1949. http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/aime-cesaire/discours-11juillet1949.asp (n.d.).
Assemblé Nationale. ‘Discours à l’Assemblée nationale 27 juillet 1981. http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/aime-cesaire/discours-27juillet1981.asp (n.d.).
Césaire, A. (2000). Discourse on colonialism (trans: Pinkham, J.). New York: Monthly Review Press.
Césaire, A. (2001). Notebook of a return to my native land (trans: by Eshleman C., & Smith, A.). Wesleyan University Press.
Ngal, G. (1975). Aimé Césaire, un homme à la recherche d’une patrie. Paris: Présence Africaine.
Toumson, R., & Henry-Valmore, S. (1993). Aimé Césaire, le Nègre inconsolé. Paris: Syros.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Vergès, F. (2020). Césaire, Aimé (1913–2008). In: Ness, I., Cope, Z. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91206-6_298-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91206-6_298-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91206-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91206-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities