Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme [Discourse on Colonialism]

Bronwyn Winter (University of Sydney)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

This essay of some fifty pages, a passionate denunciation of colonialism, first appeared in pamphlet form in 1950, with a first English translation in 1953. At the time, Aimé Césaire was Communist Maire of Fort de France in Martinique and Communist Deputy in the French Assemblée Nationale (he was to leave the Party in 1956, because of its resistance to destalinisation). The essay was republished in 1995 by Présence Africaine, the publishing house founded in Paris and Dakar by Senegalese intellectual Alioune Diop, himself a member of the French Senate at the time.

The timing of the first and second publications of the Discours is significant: the 1950s was the decade of decolonisation, of the Algerian war (which began less than a year after the second publication of the Discours and

1648 words

Citation: Winter, Bronwyn. "Discours sur le colonialisme". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14503, accessed 28 March 2024.]

14503 Discours sur le colonialisme 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.