Overview

Available to readers for the first time, Aimé Césaire’s three-act drama . . . . . . And the Dogs Were Silent—written during the Vichy regime in Martinique in 1943 and lost until 2008—dramatizes the Haitian Revolution and the rise and fall of Toussaint Louverture as its heroic leader. This bilingual English and French edition stands apart from Césaire’s more widely known 1946 closet drama. Following the slave revolts that sparked the revolution, Louverture arrives as both prophet and poet, general and visionary. With striking dramatic technique, Césaire retells the revolution in poignant encounters between rebels and colonial forces, guided by a prophetic chorus and Louverture’s steady ethical and political vision. In the last act, we reach the hero’s betrayal, his imprisonment, and his last stand against the lures of compromise. Césaire’s masterwork is a strikingly beautiful and brutal indictment of colonial cruelty and an unabashed celebration of Black rebellion and victory.

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9781478026419

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Reviews

“A distinguished poet and playwright, essayist, and historian, Aimé Césaire is a legend in anticolonial literary and intellectual history. The story Alex Gil weaves in his elegant introduction to .....And the Dogs Were Silent—of how a dispute between surrealists André Breton and Yvan Goll almost resulted in Césaire’s earliest known theatrical representation of the Haitian Revolution never seeing the light of day—is as fascinating as it is invaluable. This bilingual edition is a precious gift to readers, offering new biographical information about one of the Caribbean’s most beloved authors alongside Gil’s brilliant translation of what turns out to be one of Césaire’s most remarkable literary feats.” -- Marlene L. Daut, author of * Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution *

“A distinguished poet and playwright, essayist, and historian, Aimé Césaire is a legend in anticolonial literary and intellectual history. The story Alex Gil weaves in his elegant introduction to .....And the Dogs Were Silent—of how a dispute between surrealists André Breton and Yvan Goll almost resulted in Césaire’s earliest known theatrical representation of the Haitian Revolution never seeing the light of day—is as fascinating as it is invaluable. This bilingual edition is a precious gift to readers, offering new biographical information about one of the Caribbean’s most beloved authors alongside Gil’s brilliant translation of what turns out to be one of Césaire’s most remarkable literary feats.” -- Marlene L. Daut, author of * Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution * “This vital and beautifully translated text gives us new insight into Aimé Césaire and his intellectual journey. An exciting and useful work for teaching the Haitian Revolution, it enables us to think about the power and symbolism of literary representations of Haiti in new ways.” -- Laurent Dubois, coeditor of * The Haiti Reader: History, Culture, Politics *

Author Information

Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) was a Martinican poet, critic, essayist, playwright, and statesman; a founder of the Negritude movement; and one of the most influential Francophone Caribbean intellectuals of the twentieth century. He is the author of Journal of a Homecoming / Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, also published by Duke University Press.   Alex Gil is Senior Lecturer II and Associate Research Faculty of Digital Humanities in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University.   Brent Hayes Edwards is Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University

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