Cesaire--Amy Bower

     There are clear surrealist influences in Aime Cesaire's poem, "Notebook of a Return to the Native Land." Similar to Andre Breton's surrealist novel, Nadja, Cesaire's writing is defined by poignant imagery. But whereas Breton used imagery to play with the idea of memory and perception, Cesaire uses imagery to illustrate the disastrous effects of colonization. For instance, on page 57, Cesaire writes, "but words of fresh blood, words that are tidal waves and erysipelas malarias and lava and brush fires..." In this section, Cesaire deals with the struggle of writing about colonization in French, the language of the colonizers. Cesaire uses destructive imagery to describe "words." He describes words as being "tidal waves," "lava," and "brush fires," all three of which are things that can decimate a landscape. Furthermore, he says that words are "erysipelas malaria," thus implying that words are not only harmful, but infectious as well. Also, it is significant that Cesaire compares the French language to disease, as the colonizers literally brought diseases when they colonized the Caribbean and Africa. The very words that Cesaire uses to criticize colonization are loaded with the destructiveness of colonization.
     Like Breton, Cesaire also addresses the idea of setting and memory. One instant of this is on page 59, where Cesaire writes, "In my memory there are lagoons. They are covered with death's-heads. They are not covered with water lilies. In my memory there are lagoons. No women's loincloths spread out on their shores. My memory is encircled with blood. My memory has a belt of corpses!" In Nadja, Breton speaks of being "haunted." Cesaire's chant-like repetition of "In my memory there are lagoons" and "in my memory" implies that these memories come to Cesaire over and over, and that he is haunted by these powerful images of blood and destruction. The happy images of daily life that he should remember from his hometown in Martinique ("water lilies" on the lagoon and "women's loincloth spread out on their shore") are overpowered by the memory of the violence of colonization. The speaker's "memory is encircled with blood," so much so that he can see nothing but the violence and blood. Also, the interweaving of the violent imagery with the imagery of the lagoons creates an image of the landscape itself being overflown with blood. Thus, it is almost as if the land itself is bleeding, as if the land has been physically wounded by colonization as much as the people of the land have been killed and wounded. This interweaving of imagery as well as the personification of the land clearly reveals Cesaire's surrealist tendencies.