Aimé Césaire

Aimé Césaire was born in Basse-Pointe, Martinique, in the French Caribbean. His father, Fernand Elphège, was educated as teacher, but later worked as a manager of a sugar estate. Eléonore, his mother a seamstress. In Cahier Césaire described his childhood without mercy: "And the bed of planks from which my race has risen, all my race from this bed of planks on its feet of kerosene cases, as if the old bed had elephantiasis, covered with a goat skin, and its dried banana leaves and its rags, the ghost

point out in her novel otherwise. A Tempest by Aime Cesaire Aime Cesaire’s play, A Tempest is an adaptation of The Tempest by William Shakespeare. The author parodies Shakespeare’s play from post-colonial point of view. Cesaire also changes the occupations and races of his characters. For example, he transforms the occupation of Prospero, who was a magician, and changes him into a slave-owner, and also changes Ariel in Mulatto, though he was a spirit. Cesaire, like Rhys, makes use of a famous work of

be discussed in regards to Prospero and his relationship with Caliban as his master. Caliban is, for the most part, a very one-dimensional and static character that only serves to ensure Prospero and his daughter Miranda survive on their island. Aime Cesaire, a Martinican playwright and poet, authors his own reinterpretation of The Tempest and shifts the audience’s attention from Prospero’s vengeance to Caliban and his relationship to Prospero. In his reinterpretation,

Colonial Language in Shakespeare's The Tempest and Aime Cesaire's A Tempest       Language and literature are the most subtle and seductive tools of domination. They gradually shape thoughts and attitudes on an almost subconscious level. Perhaps Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak states this condition most succinctly in her essay "The Burden of English" when she writes, "Literature buys your assent in an almost clandestine way...for good or ill, as medicine or poison, perhaps always a bit of both"(137)

Discourse on Colonialism Aime Cesaire’s Discourse on Colonialism, first published in 1955, reads as a passionate and scathing piece of prose, laying heavy but warranted criticism on Europe, the oppressive classes and those who continue to allow such oppression to continue. While being written around 1955 specifically about colonialism, it bears many explicit and metaphorical statements which can be applied to our situation today both in terms of racial struggles as well as struggles against capitalism

Aime Cesaire’s Discourse on Colonialism, first published in 1955, reads as a passionate and scathing piece of prose, laying heavy, but warranted criticism on Europe, the oppressed classes and those who continue to allow such oppression to continue. While being written around 1955 specifically about colonialism, it bears many explicit and metaphorical statements which can be applied to our situation today, both in terms of racial struggles as well as struggles against capitalism and imperialism. While

When witnessing irrational behavior, there comes a sudden urge. The urge to feel the emotions and read the thoughts of the offender in an attempt to understand their purpose and to set the mind at ease. The play The Tragedy of King Christophe by Aimé Césaire offers the opportunity to peer into the mind of King Henri Christophe and to understand the motives that lead to his undoing. His voice is no longer silenced. His story speaks of a man with selfless aspirations who took an unfortunately fatal detour

The Misunderstood Message of Aime Cesaire's A Tempest         A Tempest, by Aime Cesaire, has been the center of controversy for over twenty years now.  The argument is not concerning whether the play has substance, or whether its themes are too racy; the criticism is about its parallel to another work.  The work in question is that of The Tempest by William Shakespeare.  Cesaire has been bluntly accused of mirroring, misrepresenting, and misinterpreting Shakespeare's last play.  I challenge

Confronting Colonialism in A Tempest     A Tempest by Aime Cesaire is an attempt to confront and rewrite the idea of colonialism as presented in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  He is successful at this attempt by changing the point of view of the story.  Cesaire transforms the characters and transposes the scenes to reveal Shakespeare’s Prospero as the exploitative European power and Caliban and Ariel as the exploited natives.  Cesaire’s A Tempest is an effective response to Shakespeare’s The Tempest

domination of the West.   Leopold Senghor, Leon Damas, and Aime Cesaire are the three pioneers of the revolution.  The founder who expresses his ideas more broadly, though, is Cesaire, who uses literary works to express his viewpoint on colonization.  An excellent example of such a tactic is his play, A Tempest, which is a revision of