Poetry Books
Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan Poetry)
RRP: $17.95
Our Price: $13.46
You Save: $ 4.49 ( 25% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
Author: Aime Cesaire
Publisher: Wesleyan
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $13.46
You Save: $ 4.49 ( 25% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
Author: Aime Cesaire
Publisher: Wesleyan
Average Customer Rating:
Experimental feature: Order Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan Poetry) from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan Poetry) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 841.914
EAN: 9780819564528
ISBN: 0819564524
Label: Wesleyan
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 66
Publication Date: 2001-09-24
Publisher: Wesleyan
Studio: Wesleyan
Dewey Decimal Number: 841.914
EAN: 9780819564528
ISBN: 0819564524
Label: Wesleyan
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 66
Publication Date: 2001-09-24
Publisher: Wesleyan
Studio: Wesleyan
Editorial Review of Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan Poetry)
Aime Cesaire's masterpiece, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, is a work of immense cultural significance and beauty. The long poem was the beginning of Cesaire's quest for negritude, and it became an anthem of Blacks around the world. With its emphasis on unusual juxtapositions of object and metaphor, manipulation of language into puns and neologisms, and rhythm, Cesaire considered his style a "beneficial madness" that could "break into the forbidden" and reach the powerful and overlooked aspects of black culture.
Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith achieve a laudable adaptation of Cesaire's work to English by clarifying double meanings, stretching syntax, and finding equivalent English puns, all while remaining remarkably true to the French text. Their treatment of the poetry is marked with imagination, vigor, and accuracy that will clarify difficulties for those already familiar with French, and make the work accessible to those who are not. Andre Breton's introduction, A Great Black Poet, situates the text and provides a moving tribute to Cesaire.
Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is recommended for readers in comparative literature, post-colonial literature, African American studies, poetry, modernism, and French.
Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith achieve a laudable adaptation of Cesaire's work to English by clarifying double meanings, stretching syntax, and finding equivalent English puns, all while remaining remarkably true to the French text. Their treatment of the poetry is marked with imagination, vigor, and accuracy that will clarify difficulties for those already familiar with French, and make the work accessible to those who are not. Andre Breton's introduction, A Great Black Poet, situates the text and provides a moving tribute to Cesaire.
Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is recommended for readers in comparative literature, post-colonial literature, African American studies, poetry, modernism, and French.
Customer Reviews of Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan Poetry)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An Unflinching Vision of the Human Condition
Review: Aime' Cesaire's "Return to My Native Land," one of the great prose-poetry works of the twentieth century, was parented by not one or two but three literary movements: the Negritude Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, and French Surrealism. The book's very rich suffusion of cultural and political nuances may be attributed to the Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude Movement while its linguistic dexterity and philosophical daring would have to acknowledge some allegiance to French surrealism. The result is a masterful examination of a soul simultaneously created by and torn between two cultural sensibilities: the European and the African. Like James Baldwin, Albert Camus, and Frantz Fanon in their various works, Cesaire in "Return to My Native Land" takes racism and class oppression to task at the same time that he delves most deeply into the greater nature of the human condition itself.
by Aberjhani
author of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A masterpiece of poetic literature
Review: Aime Cesaire, from the Carribean island of Martinique, has written an incredibly powerful poem that focuses on the sufferings of Black people under colonialism. The poem, surrealist in nature at times, features rich language and detailed poetic pictures of the inequalities, hard labor, and abuse that the Black people endured under the oppression of colonialist rule. But Cesaire also infuses the poem, in its final passages, with hope for a brighter day in the struggle against racism where the race will be "standing and free." Cesaire was co-creator (with Leopold Senghor) of the concept of Negritude, a literary and cultural movement that emphasized pride in African heritage and culture. His poem is one of the finest examples of 20th century poetry and it demands close reading to unveil its many sparkling diamonds. It is a literary minefield that will enrich all who attend to its beauty and truth.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: ęPay no attention to my black skin: the sun did itę.
Review: Notebook is so beautiful and awe-inspiring that I am loath to attempt a review for fear of failing to transmit how powerful a message it really has. That being said, it is a battle cry and a rallying point for the Negritude movement. Rejecting the roles of slave or victim, Cesaire pounds the reader with a repetition of painful and degrading symbols and words (i.e. the taboo: "nigger"). Using extended metaphors of slave-ships and plantations, Cesaire expresses the deep desire of modern Africans and African-Americans and Caribbeans to merely exist in the world, without any associated emotions of sympathy or messages of oppression. He attacks Christian dogma, concepts of white and/or European supremacy, and modern African-Americans "shaking themselves in various ways to get rid of their stripes." Scathing. Moving. Notebook is WELL worth the read.
Review Summary: An Unflinching Vision of the Human Condition
Review: Aime' Cesaire's "Return to My Native Land," one of the great prose-poetry works of the twentieth century, was parented by not one or two but three literary movements: the Negritude Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, and French Surrealism. The book's very rich suffusion of cultural and political nuances may be attributed to the Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude Movement while its linguistic dexterity and philosophical daring would have to acknowledge some allegiance to French surrealism. The result is a masterful examination of a soul simultaneously created by and torn between two cultural sensibilities: the European and the African. Like James Baldwin, Albert Camus, and Frantz Fanon in their various works, Cesaire in "Return to My Native Land" takes racism and class oppression to task at the same time that he delves most deeply into the greater nature of the human condition itself.
by Aberjhani
author of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A masterpiece of poetic literature
Review: Aime Cesaire, from the Carribean island of Martinique, has written an incredibly powerful poem that focuses on the sufferings of Black people under colonialism. The poem, surrealist in nature at times, features rich language and detailed poetic pictures of the inequalities, hard labor, and abuse that the Black people endured under the oppression of colonialist rule. But Cesaire also infuses the poem, in its final passages, with hope for a brighter day in the struggle against racism where the race will be "standing and free." Cesaire was co-creator (with Leopold Senghor) of the concept of Negritude, a literary and cultural movement that emphasized pride in African heritage and culture. His poem is one of the finest examples of 20th century poetry and it demands close reading to unveil its many sparkling diamonds. It is a literary minefield that will enrich all who attend to its beauty and truth.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: ęPay no attention to my black skin: the sun did itę.
Review: Notebook is so beautiful and awe-inspiring that I am loath to attempt a review for fear of failing to transmit how powerful a message it really has. That being said, it is a battle cry and a rallying point for the Negritude movement. Rejecting the roles of slave or victim, Cesaire pounds the reader with a repetition of painful and degrading symbols and words (i.e. the taboo: "nigger"). Using extended metaphors of slave-ships and plantations, Cesaire expresses the deep desire of modern Africans and African-Americans and Caribbeans to merely exist in the world, without any associated emotions of sympathy or messages of oppression. He attacks Christian dogma, concepts of white and/or European supremacy, and modern African-Americans "shaking themselves in various ways to get rid of their stripes." Scathing. Moving. Notebook is WELL worth the read.