Synopses & Reviews
Caribbean Critique seeks to define and analyze the distinctive contribution of francophone Caribbean thinkers to post-Kantian critical theory. Borrowing from North Atlantic philosophers such as Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx, it shows how the singular project of francophone Caribbean thinkers has been the forging of a critique that takes deeply into account the experiences of the Middle Passage, slavery, and imperialism. With chapters on Toussaint Louverture, Victor Schoelcher, Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, René Ménil, Frantz Fanon, and many others, it provides an extensive introduction to Caribbean philosophical thought, defining the essential parameters of the Caribbean critique.
Review
“This is a very important and exciting book. Extending his previous work on the philosophical bases of the Haitian Revolution to the whole of the French Caribbean, Nesbitt has produced the first ever account of the region’s writing from a consistently philosophical, as distinct from literary or historical, standpoint.” Celia Britton, University College London
Review
“The first ever account of the Caribbean’s writing from a philosophical standpoint. Essential reading for researchers and graduate students of contemporary French philosophy, especially the currently flourishing revival of neo-Marxist thought around Badiou, Ranciere, and Zizek. For specialists in postcolonial theory, the book offers a challenging reconceptualization of their field, while for specialists in French Caribbean writing, it provides a new perspective on already well-known authors.” fishpond.com
Review
"Nesbitt's book may be read as a survey, it also offers extremely succinct, complex, and compelling new perspectives on polemical issues that inhabit our work as professors, pedagogues, and intellectuals today ...!--Contemporary French Civilization
Synopsis
Caribbean Critique seeks to define and analyze the distinctive contribution of francophone Caribbean thinkers to perimetric Critical Theory. The book argues that their singular project has been to forge a brand of critique that, while borrowing from North Atlantic predecessors such as Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Sartre, was from the start indelibly marked by the Middle Passage, slavery, and colonialism. Chapters and sections address figures such as Toussaint Louverture, Baron de Vastey, Victor Schoelcher, Aimé Césaire, René Ménil, Frantz Fanon, Maryse Condé, and Edouard Glissant, while an extensive theoretical introduction defines the essential parameters of 'Caribbean Critique.'
About the Author
Nick Nesbitt is Professor of French and Italian at Princeton University. His books include 'Voicing Memory: History and Subjectivity in French Caribbean Literature' (University of Virginia Press, 2003) and 'Universal Emancipation: The Haitian Revolution and the Radical Enlightenment' (University of Virginia Press, 2008).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: The Caribbean Critical Imperative
I. Tropical Equality: The Politics of Principle
1 Foundations of Caribbean Critique: From Jacobinism to Black Jacobinism
2 Victor Schoelcher, Tocqueville, and the Abolition of Slavery
3 Aimé Césaire and the Logic of Decolonization
4 'Stepping Outside the Magic Circle': The Critical Thought of Maryse Condé
5 Édouard Glissant: From the Destitution of the Political to Antillean Ultra-leftism
II. Critique of Caribbean Violence
6 Jacobinism, Black Jacobinism, and the Foundations of Political Violence
7 The Baron de Vastey and the Contradictions of Scribal Critique
8 Revolutionary Inhumanism: Fanon's On Violence
9 Aristide and the Politics of Democratization
III. Critique of Caribbean Relation
10 Édouard Glissant: From the Poétique de la relation to the Transcendental Analytic of Relation
11 Césaire and Sartre: Totalization, Relation, Responsibility
12 Militant Universality: Absolutely Postcolonial
Conclusion: Aimé Césaire: The Incandescent I, Destroyer of Worlds
Appendix: Letter of Jean-François, Belair, and Biassou/Toussaint, July 1792
Notes
Bibliography
Index