Diego Galvan Cesaire

Diego Galvan

Since the focus of my independent research has been the connection between modernism, modernismo, and the Harlem Renaissance with special interest in poetry, I thought that I could consider this aspect of Cesaire’s “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land”. The challenge of this entire discussion lies within the discussion’s inherent general objective. By expanding or redefining the literary concepts mentioned above it sometimes becomes difficult to determine if any of these ideas are related and, secondly, to determine if any given text can be associated with the concepts. Nevertheless, I’d like to mention the structure of the poem because I believe that this is perhaps most indicative of the reason for its inclusive in this class. The poem’s long and free verse (and often times “prosaic”) structure remind me of something that T.S. Eliot would write, a protagonist of modernism. Furthermore, the connection to modernismo may be more evident in the incompatibility of the surrealism of the poem (as implied by the introductory essay) and Realism at the turn of the 20^th century. Lastly, I restrain from making a connection of this text to the Harlem Renaissance or other texts discussed this semester simply on the basis of Afro-American or Afro-Caribbean heritage because this can potentially oversimplify or undermine the culture as a whole. We mentioned in class that it would be unreasonable to consider the Harlem Renaissance as a strange outburst of creative energy or pride. Instead, we can consider that literature (much like jazz) gave a new voice to people. I would rather consider the Avant-garde as an attempt to express the recurring theme, but not necessarily new. 

Diego Galvan

Since the focus of my independent research has been the connection between modernism, modernismo, and the Harlem Renaissance with special interest in poetry, I thought that I could consider this aspect of Cesaire’s “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land”. The challenge of this entire discussion lies within the discussion’s inherent general objective. By expanding or redefining the literary concepts mentioned above it sometimes becomes difficult to determine if any of these ideas are related and, secondly, to determine if any given text can be associated with the concepts. Nevertheless, I’d like to mention the structure of the poem because I believe that this is perhaps most indicative of the reason for its inclusive in this class. The poem’s long and free verse (and often times “prosaic”) structure remind me of something that T.S. Eliot would write, a protagonist of modernism. Furthermore, the connection to modernismo may be more evident in the incompatibility of the surrealism of the poem (as implied by the introductory essay) and Realism at the turn of the 20^th century. Lastly, I restrain from making a connection of this text to the Harlem Renaissance or other texts discussed this semester simply on the basis of Afro-American or Afro-Caribbean heritage because this can potentially oversimplify or undermine the culture as a whole. We mentioned in class that it would be unreasonable to consider the Harlem Renaissance as a strange outburst of creative energy or pride. Instead, we can consider that literature (much like jazz) gave a new voice to people. I would rather consider the Avant-garde as an attempt to express the recurring theme, but not necessarily new. 

Diego Galvan

Since the focus of my independent research has been the connection between modernism, modernismo, and the Harlem Renaissance with special interest in poetry, I thought that I could consider this aspect of Cesaire’s “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land”. The challenge of this entire discussion lies within the discussion’s inherent general objective. By expanding or redefining the literary concepts mentioned above it sometimes becomes difficult to determine if any of these ideas are related and, secondly, to determine if any given text can be associated with the concepts. Nevertheless, I’d like to mention the structure of the poem because I believe that this is perhaps most indicative of the reason for its inclusive in this class. The poem’s long and free verse (and often times “prosaic”) structure remind me of something that T.S. Eliot would write, a protagonist of modernism. Furthermore, the connection to modernismo may be more evident in the incompatibility of the surrealism of the poem (as implied by the introductory essay) and Realism at the turn of the 20^th century. Lastly, I restrain from making a connection of this text to the Harlem Renaissance or other texts discussed this semester simply on the basis of Afro-American or Afro-Caribbean heritage because this can potentially oversimplify or undermine the culture as a whole. We mentioned in class that it would be unreasonable to consider the Harlem Renaissance as a strange outburst of creative energy or pride. Instead, we can consider that literature (much like jazz) gave a new voice to people. I would rather consider the Avant-garde as an attempt to express the recurring theme, but not necessarily new. 

Diana Carcano

In J. Michael Dash's "The Other America: Caribbean Literature in a New World Context" he points to Aime Cesaire use of the word negritude in "Notebook of a Return to the Native Land." It is this word that brings home Cesaire's call to action aimed at those who had been enslaved either literally by slave owners, as a result of colonialism, or by their own hands.   

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states the following. 

        So to coin and claim the word “Négritude” (Négrité, using the French suffix –ité instead         of -itude was considered and dropped) as the expression of the value of “blackness”             was a way for Césaire, Senghor and Damas of defiantly turning “nègre” against the               white supremacists who used it as a slur. In sum the word was and has continued to be         an irritant. 

At an address given by Aimé Césaire's in Geneva on June 2nd 1978 he explained the term in relation to "Notebook of a Return to the Native Land" emphasizing the need for the term no matter how distasteful it my seem to the person of color.  "… when it appeared the literature of Négritude created a revolution: in the darkness of the great silence, a voice was raising up, with no interpreter, no alteration, and no complacency, a violent and staccato voice, and it said for the first time: “I, Nègre.”
A voice of revolt
A voice of resentment
No doubt
But also of fidelity, a voice of freedom, and first and foremost, a voice for the retrieved identity."

Cesaire does not dismisses himself from the actions or rather inactions of those he depicts in his piece.  He declares how his cowardice is displayed when he ridicules a 
"[A] nigger big as a pongo trying to make himself small on the street-car bench" (35).  He describes the man and although he does indicate that poverty had probably worn this man down, he does not stop himself from calling him "comical" and "ugly" drawing from the stereotypical depictions set forth by whites.  He catches himself and brings forth his sense of shame for succumbing to trampling of the black man's will.  

He questions whether or not he should believe that he descended from royalty.  

"No, we've never been Amazons of the king of Dahomey,
nor princes of Ghana with eight hundred camels,
nor wise men in Timbuktu under Askia the Great,
nor the architects of Djenne, nor Madhis, nor warriors.
We don't feel under our armpit the itch of those who
in the old days carried a lance."

Instead he reflects on how these prisoners of time may have become those he calls lazy and drunk, and complacent. That centuries of torturous treatment may have lead to a sense of defeat and a spirit broken by those in power. 

"And this land screamed for centuries that we are bestial brutes;
that the human pulse stops at the gates of the barracoon;
that we are walking compost hideously promising tender cane and
silky cotton and they would brand us with red-hot irons and
we would sleep in our excrement"

It is as if he calls on the spirit of Haitian revolutionary, Toussaint, a man born a slave who gains his freedom to rally those in need of salvation. If this man could have led a revolt that forced the French out of Haiti, why couldn't they, if they joined forces bring true freedom to their people.

"What is mine 
a lone man imprisoned in whiteness
a lone man defying the white screams of white death
(TOUSSAINT, TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE)
a man who mesmerizes the white sparrow hawk of white death"

It is true that much of the text deals with his anger at the complacency of the people but he pleads with them to stop being "mumblers of words" and instead come forth with "words of fresh blood, words that are tidal waves and erysipelas and malarias and lava and brush fires, and blazes of flesh, and blazes of cities ... "  

Week Seven Discussion

Like last week, I won't be providing specific questions for you to respond to.  Feel free to write about anything in the reading that you find compelling or curious.  Also, remember that, in addition to Césaire's Notebook, you can also discuss Michael Dash's analysis in your response.--Stephen