Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere

This article explores the multiple forms of language used to imagine the return to the “native land” in works by Aimé Césaire and Dany Laferrière. In Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939), the return is a dual movement, encapsulating both the rediscovery of Martinique and the spectre of...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hiddleston, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Taylor and Francis 2018
_version_ 1797071540568719360
author Hiddleston, J
author_facet Hiddleston, J
author_sort Hiddleston, J
collection OXFORD
description This article explores the multiple forms of language used to imagine the return to the “native land” in works by Aimé Césaire and Dany Laferrière. In Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939), the return is a dual movement, encapsulating both the rediscovery of Martinique and the spectre of a fantasised reconnection with Africa. The article analyses the languages that evoke and create these returns in the Cahier alongside those of Dany Laferrière’s L’Enigme du retour (2009), which narrates a return to Haiti from Canada that is both immersed in Césaire and depicts a perhaps even more ambivalent experimentation with the languages of return. Both texts suggest that return can be dissociated from myths of origins to become a multifaceted and continued process of movement. The writing of return for Césaire and Laferrière also dissociates return from any notion of an originary mother tongue and generates an eclectic linguistic experimentation.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T22:54:46Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:5ffe00e1-2047-40db-95a3-fb5282e7b82e
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T22:54:46Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Taylor and Francis
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:5ffe00e1-2047-40db-95a3-fb5282e7b82e2022-03-26T17:50:32ZLanguages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany LaferriereJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5ffe00e1-2047-40db-95a3-fb5282e7b82eEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordTaylor and Francis2018Hiddleston, JThis article explores the multiple forms of language used to imagine the return to the “native land” in works by Aimé Césaire and Dany Laferrière. In Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939), the return is a dual movement, encapsulating both the rediscovery of Martinique and the spectre of a fantasised reconnection with Africa. The article analyses the languages that evoke and create these returns in the Cahier alongside those of Dany Laferrière’s L’Enigme du retour (2009), which narrates a return to Haiti from Canada that is both immersed in Césaire and depicts a perhaps even more ambivalent experimentation with the languages of return. Both texts suggest that return can be dissociated from myths of origins to become a multifaceted and continued process of movement. The writing of return for Césaire and Laferrière also dissociates return from any notion of an originary mother tongue and generates an eclectic linguistic experimentation.
spellingShingle Hiddleston, J
Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere
title Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere
title_full Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere
title_fullStr Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere
title_full_unstemmed Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere
title_short Languages of return: Aime Cesaire and Dany Laferriere
title_sort languages of return aime cesaire and dany laferriere
work_keys_str_mv AT hiddlestonj languagesofreturnaimecesaireanddanylaferriere