2012 Articles

Bridging the Middle Passage: The textual (r)evolution of Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal

Gil Fuentes, Alexander

The paper represents the most up-to-date, comprehensive and accurate account of the history of The Cahier d' un retour au pays natal in English today. I use the early productions and reproductions of the poem to argue that Césaire's early work is meant for an American (in the broad sense of the word) audience. Using textual evidence and archival research I demonstrate that the Brentano's edition of the poem is not an anomaly to be read as a different poem as has been argued before, but a central constituent in the development of Césaire's poetics in the early 40s. The paper also provides a few more details than previously available about the production of the Lydia Cabrera translation of the poem.