Césaire Reads Toussaint Louverture: The Haitian Revolution and the Problem of Departmentalization

This article argues that Césaire's essay, Toussaint Louverture: La Révolution française et le problème colonial brings the Haitian Revolution into contact with the departmentalization of the French Caribbean. Situated between the epic Cahier d'un retour au pays natal and the play, La Tragédie du Roi Christophe, Toussaint is an important transitional work in Césaire's oeuvre, one that has only recently received the attention it deserves. The historiographical and literary modes of the essay allow Césaire to work through the Haitian Revolution in order to nuance the political and cultural assimilation that he negotiated with the French during and after departmentalization.