Beyond Postcolonial Césaire: Reading Cahier d'un retour au pays natal Historically

“Beyond Postcolonial Césaire” summarises four years' work on successive texts of Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939, 1947 [2], 1956). Comparison of additions and deletions demonstrates that the Cahier originally had a spiritual and prophetic intent, focused on the struggle, death and rebirth of the speaker whose sacrifice would renew the community of nègres. Frobenius, Frazer and Nietzsche contributed elements to this Modernist myth. The poetic discourse is anchored in biblical prophecy; the long, repetitive, lyric line derives more immediately from the Catholic poetry of Péguy and Claudel. The two 1947 editions (New York and Paris) introduced an aggressive, surrealist, metaphoric density which began to displace the spiritual discourse of the pre-war text. In 1956 Césaire further obscured the agonistic plot, as well as the more sexually provocative surrealist metaphors, while introducing a socialist-realist texture that has preoccupied critics and theorists. The Appendix reproduces material cut from the 1956 edition, supporting the argument that ideologically-driven postcolonial readings have ignored the history of both the Cahier and Césaire's development as a poet. The author calls for the publication of comparative digital editions which will make possible a truer assessment of Césaire's accomplishment and his place in mid-twentieth-century poetry.