Cesaire-Joan

Cesaire is a prominent figure in the literary movement, Negritude. Various elements of this movement are highlighted and emphasized in his work, “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land.” Such characteristics of Negritude that are also represented in Cesaire’s work include a rejection of colonization, western traditions, and an embracement of African culture and values. He employs many rhetorical strategies to articulate these key points, and one of these can be identified as having a surrealistic character. Just as the surrealist movement represents a defiance of reason, Cesaire’s work shows these tendencies as well. For example, he strives to break the rational framework that has been defined by Western civilization through its history of colonialism. He resists this ‘reason’ by escaping the boundaries constructed by the Whites and finding other possibilities. This particular passage highlights this:

“Reason, I crown you evening wind.

Your name voice of order?

To me the whip’s corolla.

Beauty I call you the false claim of the stone.

But ah! my raucous laughter

Smuggled in

Ah! my saltpeter treasure!

Because we hate you

And your reason, we claim kinship

With dementia praecox with the flaming madness

Of persistence cannibalism” (Cesaire, 49)

Here, Cesaire rejects a reason that is constructed within the logic bound in the Western civilization’s rational framework. A specific demonstration of this logic is colonialism, itself, and the use of a whip to drive the slaves. Cesaire argues that the practice of colonialism is damaging, rather than beneficial. Throughout the text, he uses vivid imagery and personification to capture the situation of his native land. For example, the native population has been struck with disease and alcohol. Cesaire emphasizes the injustice and damage that has spawned in the hands of European colonialism. In doing so, the author steps out of the conventionalized logic and views colonialism at a different angle. This divergence from reason not only promotes Negritude ideas but also echoes a certain surrealistic quality. Just as Cesaire does, surrealist intellectuals strove to extend beyond the conventional logic that dominates society.

Moreover, the phrase ‘to me the whip’s corolla’ illustrates Cesaire’s objection to the use of a whip to educate/help the slave. Rather, it is abusive and demeaning. He sees these actions as reinforcements of disparaging stereotypes of Africans.  For the latter part of the quotation that states “…we claim kinship/With dementia praecox with the flaming madness,” Cesaire illustrates how he escapes this reason. This madness is derived from the notion that Africans are deemed ‘inferior.’ Cesaire escapes this by embracing the definition of madness. That is, claiming “kinship” and instilling a certain pride to a word that was previously concentrated with negativity by the Whites. The resistance to a conventionalized order echoes a surrealistic quality that we’ve seen in Andre Breton and even in its predecessor, Dadaism.  Breton demonstrates this by threading together what seemed to be haphazard textual images. Dadaist intellectuals do this by undermining the notion of art through provocative constructions such as ready-mades. Through the rejections of Western ideals throughout the text, Cesaire powerfully raises social and political issues.