Refusal of the Shadow Surrealism and the Caribbean

by Fijalkowski, Krzysztof; Richardson, Michael; Fijalkowski, Krzysztof; Richardson, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781859840184
• ISBN10: 1859840183
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-05-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

In 1932, at the peak of French colonialism, a group of Martiniquan students at the Sorbonne established a Caribbean Surrealist Group, and published a single issue of a journal called Légitime défense. Immediately banned by the authorities, it passed almost unnoticed at the time. Yet it began a remarkable series of debates between surrealism and Caribbean intellectuals that had a profound impact on the struggle for cultural identity. In the next two decades these exchanges greatly influenced the evolution of the concept of negritude, initiated revolution in Haiti in 1946, and crucially affected the development of surrealism itself.

This fascinating book presents a series of key texts—most of them never before translated into English—which reveal the complexity of this relationship between black anti-colonialist movements in the Caribbean and the most radical of the European avant-gardes. Included are René Ménil’s subtle philosophical essays and the fierce polemics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, appreciations of surrealism by Haitian writers, lyrical evocations of the Caribbean by André Breton and André Masson, and rich explorations of Haiti and voodoo religion by Pierre Mabille and Michel Leiris.

Table of Contents

Translators' Note
Introduction	p. 1
1978 Introduction to Legitime defense	p. 37
Legitime defense: Declaration	p. 41
Note Bearing on the Coloured French Bourgeoisie	p. 44
Heaven on Earth	p. 47
General Observations about the Coloured 'Writer' in the Caribbean	p. 50
Civilization	p. 54
Poverty of a Poetry	p. 55
On Certain Common Characteristics of the Civilized Mentality	p. 59
For a Critical Reading of Tropiques	p. 69
Panorama	p. 79
Leo Frobenius and the Problem of Civilizations	p. 82
Presentation	p. 88
Introduction to the Marvellous	p. 89
A Civilization's Discontent	p. 96
An Introduction to Martiniquan Folklore	p. 101
Birth of Our Art	p. 105
Orientation of Poetry	p. 112
Calling the Magician: A Few Words for a Caribbean Civilization	p. 119
1943: Surrealism and Us	p. 123
The Situation of Poetry in the Caribbean	p. 127
Poetry and Knowledge	p. 134
Evidence Concerning the Mind and Its Speed	p. 147
Lightning Effect	p. 153
The Great Camouflage	p. 156
Humour: Introduction to 1945	p. 162
Concerning Colonial Exoticism	p. 176
Creole Dialogue	p. 185
A Great Black Poet: Aime Cesaire	p. 191
The Jungle	p. 199
At Night in Haiti	p. 213
Andre Breton in Haiti	p. 217
Andre Breton in Port-au-Prince	p. 229
A Record about Surrealism	p. 234
Surrealism: What It Is	p. 236
Letter to the Old Men	p. 237
Extract from a Letter to Monny de Bouilly	p. 241
Memories of Haiti	p. 243
The Haitian Panorama	p. 254
The Loas Speaking in Govis: Sorcery and Clairvoyance in Voodoo Religion	p. 256
The Sacrifice of a Bull at the Home of the Houngan Jo Pierre-Gilles	p. 263
Biographical Notes	p. 277
Bibliography	p. 281
Index	p. 285
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