Return to My Native Land

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