Book contents
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- LSE International Studies
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
- 1 Genealogies of Anticolonialism
- 2 Anticolonialism and National Liberation
- 3 An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
- 4 Decolonization as Transformation
- 5 Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949
- Part II Schools of Thought
- Part III Dissident Sociologists
- Part IV On Method
- Index
- References
1 - Genealogies of Anticolonialism
Aimé Césaire on Alienation and Underdevelopment
from Part I - Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2025
By
Book contents
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- LSE International Studies
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
- 1 Genealogies of Anticolonialism
- 2 Anticolonialism and National Liberation
- 3 An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
- 4 Decolonization as Transformation
- 5 Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949
- Part II Schools of Thought
- Part III Dissident Sociologists
- Part IV On Method
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter examines Aimé Césaire’s engagement with Marxism from his neglected 1930s writings through his later talks and speeches from the 1950s and 1960s, where he articulates his notion of a “tropical Marxism.” It argues that Césaire takes up and transforms the Marxist concept of alienation to theorize the paralyzing impact of colonialism through assimilation and underdevelopment. This analysis of alienation undergirds the idea of a tropical Marxism, which emphasized the necessity for colonized peoples to integrate Marxism creatively to the particular conditions of their societies. By tracing the theoretical underpinnings of this idea of tropical Marxism through Césaire’s intellectual and political journey first as a student in Paris and then as a representative of Martinique in the French National Assembly, we glean the myriad of ways in which Marxism spoke to the problem of colonialism and therefore constitutes a seminal part of the canon of anticolonial social theory.
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- Anticolonialism and Social Thought , pp. 25 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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