Aimé Césaire: A Centenary Celebration

Aimé Césaire: A Centenary Celebration

 

At the French Institute,

17 Queensberry Place,

London

SW7 2DT

24th June, 2013

 

Aimé Césaire, the great poet, politician and playwright, was born in Martinique on 26th June, 1913. He has been hailed as the leading francophone poet of the twentieth century and one of the prophets of negritude – the 1930s black consciousness movement whose steadfast aim was to ‘decolonise the mind’ and reassert pride in the African cultural values of the diaspora.

Césaire, who died in 2008, was an intellectual of great discernment and eloquence; an artist of the avant-garde who championed non-Western cultural forms. His influence upon post-colonial discourse is abiding. An international and inter-disciplinary colloquium on Monday 24th June (9.30am-6pm) will honour and explore Aimé Césaire’s life, work and legacy. Selections of his poetry and plays will be recited and performed, both in English and French.

 

Provisional Programme

9.30-10:Accueil/Registration (thé, café)

 

10-11.30: Accueil/Welcome

Professors Richard and Sally Price: ‘Césaire: Personal Reminiscences’

Professor Charles Forsdick: ‘Il n’y a pas de race paria’: Césaire and Haiti

 

Pause thé, café

 

11.45-13.15

Professor Roger Little: ‘The Poetry of Césaire’s Cahier’

Dr Louise Hardwick: ‘Teaching Césaire’s Poetry: An Online Approach’

Isabelle Fruleux (Actress)

 

Déjeuner

 

14.30-15.45

Dr Philip Crispin: ‘Our Black Shakespeare’: Césaire and Theatre

Dr Fabienne Viala: ‘Césaire’s Caliban: A New Paradigm for Caribbean Cultural Cannibalism?’

 

Pause thé, café

 

16.00-17.30

Le Professeur Romuald Fonkoua: ‘La littérature au secours de la politique: brève lecture du Discours sur le colonialisme’

Isabelle Fruleux

Table Ronde

Au revoir

 

Registration fee: £20

To register and for further information, please contact the organiser:

Dr Philip Crispin, University of Hull, p.crispin@hull.ac.uk