Cold War Negritude: Form and Alignment in French Caribbean Literature

Cold War Negritude is the first book-length study of francophone Caribbean literature to foreground the political context of the global Cold War. It focuses on three canonical francophone Caribbean writers whose literary careers and political alignments spanned all three "worlds" of the 1950s Cold War order. It shows how French Caribbean Marxist authors re-evaluated the literary aesthetics of Negritude and sought to develop alternatives that would be adequate to the radically changed world system of the Cold War.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 01 December 2023
Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Cold War Negritude is a groundbreaking book-length study that delves into the political backdrop of the global Cold War, specifically focusing on the francophone Caribbean literature. It explores the literary careers and political affiliations of three canonical writers: René Depestre, Aimé Césaire, and Jacques-Stephen Alexis. These writers, as black Caribbean authors who wrote in French, actively engaged in the global communist movement, and their interactions with Marxist thought and practices were influenced by their colonial relationship with France. Their unique perspectives as authors who were part of the global communist movement and who grappled with the complexities of their colonial past shed light on the evolving bipolar system of the 1950s.

The book showcases how French Caribbean Marxist authors re-evaluated the literary aesthetics of Negritude during the 1950s, in response to the radically transformed world system brought about by the Cold War. Through meticulous close readings of literary, theoretical, and political texts by Depestre, Césaire, and Alexis, the author demonstrates how this formal shift reflected a profound shift in understanding what it meant to write engaged literature in the new, bipolar world order. Literary aesthetics became a proxy battlefield on which Antillean writers engaged in spirited debates and advocated for their distinct visions of an emancipated Caribbean modernity.

Consequently, these Antillean authors developed innovative and unconventional Marxist literary aesthetics that synthesized various socialist literary tendencies from across the globe. Cold War Negritude not only offers a comprehensive analysis of the literary contributions of these writers but also sheds light on the complex web of political, social, and cultural factors that shaped their lives and work during this pivotal

turbulent period. It is a valuable contribution to the field of Cold War studies and provides a deeper understanding of the intersection of literature, politics, and the global Cold War.

Dimension: 239 x 163 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781837644711