Nick Nesbitt, Caribbean Critique: Antillean Critical Theory
from Toussaint to Glissant. Liverpool University Press, 2013. 346 pp. ISBN:
9781846318665.
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.'
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
-Introduction: The Caribbean Critical Imperative
Part I. Tropical Equality: The Politics of Principle
- Foundations of Caribbean Critique: From Jacobinism to
Black Jacobinism
- Victor Schoelcher, Tocqueville, and the Abolition of
Slavery
- Aimé Césaire and the Logic of Decolonization
- ‘Stepping Outside the Magic Circle’: The Critical Thought
of Maryse Condé
- Édouard Glissant: From the Destitution of the Political to
Antillean Ultra-leftism
Part II. Critique of Caribbean Violence
- Jacobinism, Black Jacobinism, and the Foundations of
Political Violence
- The Baron de Vastey and the Contradictions of Scribal
Critique
- Revolutionary Inhumanism: Fanon’s 'On Violence'
- Aristide and the Politics of Democratization
Part III. Critique of Caribbean Relation
- Édouard Glissant: From the Poétique de la relation to the
Transcendental Analytic of Relation
- Césaire and Sartre: Totalization, Relation, Responsibility
- Militant Universality: Absolutely Postcolonial
- Conclusion: Aimé Césaire: The Incandescent I, Destroyer of
Worlds
Reviews:
“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)
“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)
AUTHOR INFORMATION:
NICK NESBITT is a Professor of French at Princeton
University. He is the author of Universal Emancipation: The Haitian Revolution
and the Radical Enlightenment; Voicing Memory: History and Subjectivity in
French Caribbean Literature; and editor of Toussaint Louverture: The Haitian
Revolution and Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Philosophy of
Music.
