From decolonization to destalinization: Aimé Césaire and the “Polish question”

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines Aimé Césaire’s literary and political engagements with socialist-era Poland between 1948 and 1956. Reading Césaire’s poem “Varsovie” alongside “Letter to Maurice Thorez” and his speech Discours à la Maison du Sport, it argues that the rebuilding of Warsaw in the post-war period and Eastern European movements for national autonomy during the 1956 Socialist Bloc Thaw are important contexts, not only for Césaire’s resignation from the Communist Party, but also for his efforts to develop a more thoroughly anti-colonial Marxist politics and poetics. In the decade following World War Two Césaire was deeply invested in current events in Eastern Europe; understanding this investment is key to a complete understanding of both his work and the politics of Cold War Internationalism.