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PhD, The University of Iowa, IA 2006

Dr. Badiane’s research and teaching deal with the representation of Afro-Caribbean people and culture in literature at the beginning of the twentieth century. His dissertation, “The Poetics of Negrismo and Negritude in the Twentieth Century,” addresses the redefinition of national identities in the Caribbean and its connection to the movements of decolonization in Africa. He draws on materials in both Spanish and French in order to explore the differences and resemblances between the two literary movements. He is also interested in the ever changing nature of Afro-Caribbean cultures through Negrismo, Négritude, Antillanité, and Créolité.

Dr. Badiane has recently translated from Spanish to French Les esclaves dans les colonies espagnoles published in Harmattan, Paris 2006.

 


Negritude and Negrismo are two literary movements that emerged in the Hispanic and Francophone Caribbean and in Africa at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Negritude came into being in France at the beginning of the 1930’s through the work of a dynamic group of African and Caribbean students who migrated to France to study at the universities and other institutions of higher learning. A very dynamic triumvirate of intellectuals: Aimé Césaire (1913- 2008) from Martinique, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) from Senegal, and Léon-Gontran Damas (1912-1978) from French Guiana, proposed to reassert the vitality of Africancivilization. All traced their black cultural identity to Africa. Finally, Negritude was more a movement for cultural, political and literary liberation.

Negrismo began in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, countries where white authors such as Luis Palés Matos (1898-1959), Zacarías Tallet (1893-1989), Ramón Guirao (1908-1949), Emilio Ballagas (1908-1954), and Manuel del Cabral (1907-1999) inaugurated the negrista movement. It would culminate with the celebrated poetry of the mulatto Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989). Negrismo first appeared in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as a way to represent certain African cultures through the imitation of African sounds in writing.

Dr. Badiane  interviewing Aimé Césaire
Dr. Badiane (left) interviewing Aimé Césaire, founding member of Négritude, Fort-de-France,
6 June 2007.

Contact:
123 Arts & Science Building
573-882-9419
badianem@missouri.edu

Romance Languages & Literatures
143 Arts & Science Bldg.
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211 USA
tel. 573-882-4874
fax. 573-884-8171
general inquiries: romancelanguages@missouri.edu
graduate program: rlgrad@missouri.edu