Resolutely Black

Оглавление

Aimé Césaire. Resolutely Black

Contents

Guide

Pages

Series title. Critical South

Resolutely Black. Conversations with Françoise Vergès

Copyright page

Note on the Translation

Notes

Preface By Françoise Vergès

Notes

Conversations

Notes

Postface by Françoise Vergès

Césaire and Slavery

Césaire and Colonialism

Césaire’s Relevance Today

Notes

Works by Aimé Césaire in English

POLITY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Отрывок из книги

The publication of this series was made possible with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Translated by Matthew B. Smith

.....

Once synonymous with “slave,” the term nègre prevents one from forgetting the irreparable damage caused by slavery and colonialism. Its range of meaning – from offensive slur to a self-affirming designator – knows no exact equivalent in English. Throughout the history of its use, it aligns with a different set of English terms depending on the period in question. Brent Hayes Edwards suggests that during the interwar period, when Césaire adopted the term, though its function was similar to the “n-word” in English, it was more closely aligned with “black,” which was also a derogatory term in the 1920s, whereas “Negro,” written with a capital N in the manner of W. E. B. Du Bois, corresponded at that time more to the French term Noir. Of course, these are all rough and fleeting correspondences that would continue to shift over the ensuing decades. For a while, nègre was most frequently translated as “negro”; now it isn’t uncommon to translate it as “black”. It goes without saying that neither of these can account for the historical shifts in its meaning.

Thus, any attempt to translate Césaire’s use of nègre in 2004 would remain approximate, if not misleading. For this reason, I have decided against seeking a single linguistic match for it. At times, I have left it untranslated when I believe it speaks for itself. At others, I offered what I felt was an appropriate translation for a given context while providing the original in square brackets. My hope is that this will allow the reader to gain a sense of the nuance and range of the term as used by Césaire while serving as a reminder of the plurality of black experience and of the history of slavery and colonialism.

.....