Return to my native land

£10.99

A work of immense cultural significance and beauty, this long poem became an anthem for the African diaspora and the birth of the Negritude movement. With unusual juxtapositions of object and metaphor, a bouquet of language-play, and deeply resonant rhythms, Césaire considered this work a ‘break into the forbidden’, at once a cry of rebellion and a celebration of Black identity.

In stock

Description

‘The undisputed masterpiece of négritude and a poetic milestone of anti-colonialism’ Guardian

‘We shall speak. We shall sing. We shall shout.’

This blazing autobiographical poem by the founder of the négritude movement became a rallying cry for decolonisation when it appeared in 1939. Following one man’s return from Europe to his homeland of Martinique, it is a reckoning with the trauma of slavery and exploitation, and a triumphant anthem for Black identity, one which reclaims and remakes language itself.

‘Nothing less than the greatest lyrical monument of this time’ André Breton

‘A Césaire poem explodes and whirls about itself like a rocket, suns burst forth whirling and exploding’ Jean-Paul Sartre

‘The most influential Francophone Caribbean writer of his generation’ Independent

Translated by John Berger and Anna Bostock

Additional information

Weight 0.079 kg
Dimensions 19.6 × 12.9 × 0.5 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

80

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

841.912 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K