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57th out of 128 books
—
117 voters
Discourse on Colonialism
This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and an...more
Paperback, 96 pages
Published
January 1st 2001
by Monthly Review Press
(first published 1950)
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An angry snarl of resentment and righteous anger, an indictment of centuries of crimes. It hides under the rather innocuous title 'Discourse of Colonialism', but instead might be appropriate 'Damn you and damn your hypocrisy and hate that led to hundreds of years of atrocities', or something like that.
The book moves from condemnation of wars and injustice, to attacks on now-obscure colonial theorists and 'racialists'. Cesaire makes the bold statement that Nazism is so infamous in Europe because...more
The book moves from condemnation of wars and injustice, to attacks on now-obscure colonial theorists and 'racialists'. Cesaire makes the bold statement that Nazism is so infamous in Europe because...more
condemn evil men and don't be afraid to combine history, poetry and exposé. Césaire is a good teacher for a generation still coming to terms with African history--it seems as though racism should have ended but colonialism was deeply economic. Now, in neo-colonialism while eugenics may be a thing of the past, first world greed fuels African exploitation and new forms of subordination to appease the guilt of the imperialist-capitalist soul. The truth of Césaire and other non-liars will help to br...more
Aimé Césaire’s "Discourse on Colonialism" is a poignant exploration of the brutality, indifference, and dehumanizing effect of colonization on both colonizer and colonized. Colonization rips the soul out of both, driving the colonizers to violence and race hatred, and the colonized towards psychic and soulful death. However, “the mechanization of man, the gigantic rape of everything intimate” does not give the white man a second thought, not until this monstrous dehumanizing colonial impulse dif...more
This book is useful to understand the roots of Third World rage, to understand the perspective of the 'other.' Cesaire's idea that non-European civilizations provided a ramparts behind which European civilizations could freely develop in the pre-capitalist, pre-colonial era is one I had never considered.
This is not history; it is not scholarly. It is a polemic dripping with sarcasm. The words explode like hand grenades. European colonial powers destroyed the colonized while destroying themselves...more
This is not history; it is not scholarly. It is a polemic dripping with sarcasm. The words explode like hand grenades. European colonial powers destroyed the colonized while destroying themselves...more
A beautiful and inspiring treatise on the roots and effects of colonialism. Cesaire has the fortitude to connect the whole of the colonialist movement to the later rise of fascism, and asserts that, if there is any difference to be found, it is only one of degree. While assertions like this are sure to make many uncomfortable (people prefer not to be associated even in the slightest way with the likes of Hitler) there is a sad and profound truth in them. The idea of inherent inferiority among ce...more
The book was disappointing.
Although named 'Discourse', it is not a thesis essay, with lots of referencing and what not. Instead it read more like an angry person who wants to write something passionately, but doesn't finish it well, doesn't tailor it into a proper academic read - so it is very unprofessional.
The ideas and authors echo only those in the recent French era- nothing much that we would remember.
AS a Discourse, I really was expecting more deeper analysis, methods and reasons. Instead...more
Although named 'Discourse', it is not a thesis essay, with lots of referencing and what not. Instead it read more like an angry person who wants to write something passionately, but doesn't finish it well, doesn't tailor it into a proper academic read - so it is very unprofessional.
The ideas and authors echo only those in the recent French era- nothing much that we would remember.
AS a Discourse, I really was expecting more deeper analysis, methods and reasons. Instead...more
I really appreciated this book. Césaire's essay on the horrors of colonialism and both the European rational for them and the effect of them on Europeans was moving. His connection of Nazism with European-style liberalism/humanism was powerful. And his outrage was refreshing. For me it feels that in both every day life and in the academy there is a disconnect between what is presented or conceptualized in the media or in academic texts (not that the two are equivalent) and the life or death matt...more
Pan-Africanist and founder of France's inter-war Negritude movement, Aime Cesaire ranks up there with Frantz Fanon in kickass primary source material. 'Discourse on Colonialism', first published in 1955, posits that 'Hitlerism' (as Cesaire calls it) was the inevitable result of and punishment for European colonialism, as they stemmed from the same worldview -- that there is a hierarchy of races in the world, and the higher races must rule the lower. Cesaire is bitingly sarcastic and bitter, call...more
One of the most essential books for anyone committed to freedom.
Read with Fanon.
Césaire's Discourse on Colonialism is a thin book that's sat unopened on my bookshelf for far too long. As a student of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, I hear now and again about Césaire in tangential ways, and when I ran across this title for fifty cents in a used bookstore, I figured what the heck. Flash forward a year and a few months, I'm reading Fanon and Glissant for class and studying for a PhD exam, and it's finally time to take the plunge. It was overdue.
Writing in 1950, just after the...more
Writing in 1950, just after the...more
This was a required text for a class I took this past semester, Introduction to African Studies. The author, Aime Cesaire, is known in Africa and France for his moving poetry, but he was also a politician.
Born and raised in Martinique, a Caribbean island that was then a colony of France and is now a "departement", Cesaire studied in Paris on a scholarship. While he was there, he met Sedar Senghor and Leon Damas, and together they founded the Negritude movement, which rejected French colonialism...more
Born and raised in Martinique, a Caribbean island that was then a colony of France and is now a "departement", Cesaire studied in Paris on a scholarship. While he was there, he met Sedar Senghor and Leon Damas, and together they founded the Negritude movement, which rejected French colonialism...more
This book was an excellent example of why general impressions fall short of actual readings. That is, I would have ventured a far less stringently polemic guess as to the content and tone of Cesaire's writing. It reminds me in many ways of Cixous, but with more frustration. Looking forward to discussing it in class tomorrow, hearing the opinions and backgrounds (academic and personal) of my classmates and professor.
The opening of this treatise provides beautiful anger, important for understanding colonialism from "underneath." But halfway through, the essays turn toward more narrow infighting with long forgotten antagonists, though, I'm sure, important when written. As a secular leftist, Cesaire falls into the mistakes typical of that vision. Still, the voice, his voice moved a generation.
Everyone, everyone, everyone should read this at some point, preferably it should be required in high school. Seriously should be apart of everyday discourse because it was written how long ago and too many things persist today. People need to think more, and Cesaire really nailed some good points in this. Love his honestly poignant style too, interested in reading more.
This book from the 1950's opened up the discourse of how colonialism works and the introduction by Robin D.G. Kelley is fabulous. I even used a quote from it for my Master's project paper. It also sheds light on how imperialism/colonialism that sets out to oppress groups by minimalizing their humanity actaully exposes the colonizers as the barbarians.
Discourse is Aime Cesaire's brilliant and explosive treatise on Colonialsm and it's systemic exploitation of the "third world". Cesaire's prose has poetic depth and force as he examines the brutality and dehumanization of both the colonizer and the colonized. This is a deceptively small book for the number of ideas and brilliant quotes it contains.
It was a really nice and simple style used to describe and analyse a question that long has been on top. It's that "Europe is Undefinable", that's quite right. I think the writer is taking the scope to defend the African culture that long has been a source of fun and envy. Colonizers says that they are coming to improve the life of Barbary, but in fact they come just to accomplish their profit, and this is what they are doing for the moment. Thanks Aimé for this nice work.
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Robin D.G. Kelley's introduction was pretty comprehensive and helpful in reading a text that was a bit difficult at times. But Cesaire has some pretty interesting stuff to say, definitely worth a read.
appropriately intense, chilling polemic. it's pretty great and dead on tho and puts cesaires wild poetics to an important usage. i also like robin dg kelly's introduction as well as the interview at the end.
A beautiful and very emotional take on colonial discourse. Césaire brings highlights the inherent racism and injustice that dominated colonial discourse. What is unique about his approach is that he shows how colonial discourse plagued and destroyed (in a way) Europe as opposed to the colonized alone.He explains how colonialism feeds the "Hitler" in every single European and suggests that Nazism is the accumulation of years and years of colonial thought.
Ppl on the internet seem to be angry that this discourse is relatively short, and not super discursive or filled with minutiae. These ppl r insane.
This book opened my eyes. It was an exciting and liberating read for me when i first read it in college.
Jul 11, 2012
Beth78
added it
Wonderful, thought provoking poetic piece. Love the style of writing too!
Like Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment, but better.
Please don't complete your life not having read this book.
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Turns colonialism on its head. Excellent book!
Aug 05, 2011
Daryl Grigsby
added it
a powerful and still relevant work!!
Read on a redeye. Now amped up.
Poetic theory, similar to Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth" but with much less violent solutions.
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Aimé Fernand David Césaire was an Afro-Martinican francophone poet, author and politician.
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Nov 04, 2012 02:59pm