Caribbean Critique

Nick Nesbitt is Professor of French and Italian at Princeton University. His books include 'Voicing Memory: History and Subjectivity in French Caribbean Literature' (University of Virginia Press, 2003) and 'Universal Emancipation: The Haitian Revolution and the Radical Enlightenment' (University of Virginia Press, 2008).

• AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction: The Caribbean Critical ImperativeI. Tropical Equality: The Politics of Principle. 1 Foundations of Caribbean Critique: From Jacobinism to Black Jacobinism. 2 Victor Schoelcher, Tocqueville, and the Abolition of Slavery. 3 Aimé Césaire and the Logic of Decolonization. 4 ‘Stepping Outside the Magic Circle’: The Critical Thought of Maryse Condé. 5 Édouard Glissant: From the Destitution of the Political to Antillean Ultra-leftismII. Critique of Caribbean Violence. 6 Jacobinism, Black Jacobinism, and the Foundations of Political Violence. 7 The Baron de Vastey and the Contradictions of Scribal Critique. 8 Revolutionary Inhumanism: Fanon’s On Violence. 9 Aristide and the Politics of DemocratizationIII. Critique of Caribbean Relation. 10 Édouard Glissant: From the Poétique de la relation to the Transcendental Analytic of Relation. 11 Césaire and Sartre: Totalization, Relation, Responsibility. 12 Militant Universality: Absolutely Postcolonial. Conclusion: Aimé Césaire: The Incandescent I, Destroyer of WorldsAppendix: Letter of Jean-François, Belair, and Biassou/ Toussaint, July 1792NotesBibliographyIndex

'This is a very important and exciting book. Extending to the whole of the French Caribbean his previous work on the philosophical bases of the Haitian Revolution, 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