Episode 25|2 : A Return to my Native Land

Dévorer le tabou: la révolution à travers l’acte de manger – Les Bookworms

Dans cet épisode, nous discutons le livre de Lauren Malka – Mangeuses : Histoire de celle qui dévorent, savourent ou se privent a l’excès. Nous explorons les expériences universelles et personnelles lie à l’acte de manger, passant de la honte et de la culpabilité à la célébration et à la joie. Nous examinons les pressions politique et sociétales qui ont contrôle et critique le corps de femmes.  Et surtout, nous célébrons l’acte de rébellion de s’aimer tel que nous sommes et de savourer chaque bouchée de ce confit de canard !

1. Dévorer le tabou: la révolution à travers l’acte de manger 31:23
2. Searching for Justice: Proust and the Dreyfus Affair 40:50
3. Through the Pages of Time 55:01
4. In Search of Lost Podcasts: Les Bookworms Revival 28:08
5. 2 Down 5 to Go: Reflections on Volume II of Proust 30:07

Overview

This long surrealist poem uses automatism to convey a very personal message of missing one’s home and a larger cultural message that critiques racism and French colonialism. Due to the stream of consciousness aspect of the poem, it reads somewhere in between poetry and prose but can be a bit tricky to read.  “A Return to my Native Land” has been called the first “grand cri noir” or black cry as it takes the reader on an emotional at times spiritual and perhaps even existential journey of hope and despair. The poem was refused for publication by many French editors, and it was through Andre Breton, a French poet and writer, who met Aime Cesaire while in Martinique, that this poem or in Breton’s words “nothing less than the greatest lyrical monument of our times” was published. 

Country

France and Martinique

Overarching Themes

1. Aime Cesaire
2. Negritude
3. Resentment/Anger of oppression

How does this book question the idea of the Francophonie? (Does it go against the grain? Does it stay stereotypical?) 

Greatly, I hope from our conversation and the themes we chose to highlight it is clear how great of an influence Aime Cesaire had on France throughout his lifetime. He questioned the Francophonie and its core tenants. He exposed the ugly and then worked to fix it.