The essential Senghor : African philosophy and Black aesthetics: from Liberté 1, 3 & 5 / Léopold Sédar Senghor ; edited and translated by Doyle D. Calhoun, Alioune B. Fall, and Cheikh Thiam.
| Author/creator | Senghor, Léopold Sédar author. |
| Other author | Calhoun, Doyle D., 1993- editor. |
| Other author | Fall, Alioune, 1989- editor. |
| Other author | Thiam, Cheikh, editor. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Durham : Duke University Press, 2026. |
| Copyright Date | ©2026 |
| Description | xi, 391 pages ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Portion of title | African philosophy and Black aesthetics |
| Contents | "Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001): A Reintroduction" -- Negritude: A Humanism for the Twentieth (and Twenty-First) Century -- Constitutive Elements of a Civilization of Negro-African Inspiration -- Negritude Is a Humanism of the Twentieth Century -- Negritude and Modernity; or, Negritude Is a Humanism of the Twentieth Century -- Concerning Negritude -- Negritude, as the Culture of Black Peoples, Shall Not Be Eclipsed -- For a Modern and Negro-African Philosophy -- As Manatees Go to Drink from the Source -- Negritude, Aesthetics, and Philosophy -- What the Black Man Offers -- The Contributions of Negro Poetry to the First Half of the Century -- Negro-African Aesthetics -- The Function and Meaning of the First World Festival of Negro Arts -- For a Negro Criticism -- From French Poetry to Francophone Poetry; or, The Contributions of Negroes to Francophone Poetry -- Oral Tradition and Modernity -- Negritude, Me̹tissage, and the Dialogue of Cultures -- The Problem of Culture in West Africa -- Perspectives on Black Africa; or, To Assimilate, Not Be Assimilated -- Why an Indo-African Department at the University of Dakar? -- Negritude and Mediterranean Civilization -- French and African Languages -- The Dialogue of Cultures |
| Abstract | "This translation and critical edition offers the first comprehensive English-language collection of writings on African aesthetics and philosophy by Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001), the first president of Senegal and major theoretician of Negritude, a movement of African and Caribbean intellectuals and artists in the 1930s. It brings together over twenty essays published in the five-volume series Liberté published in Paris by Le Seuil between 1964 and 1993, on topics that include African philosophy, ontology, and religion; African art and aesthetics; African culture, society, and civilization; African literature, languages, and linguistics. Across these essays, Senghor articulates his theory of Negritude as a philosophy, ethics and aesthetics in action-grounded in African worldviews. Beyond Negritude, key concepts include métissage or cultural hybridity, the "dialogue of cultures," and the "Civilization of the Universal." In his work, Senghor draws on a wide range of historical, philosophical, cultural, literary, and linguistic examples-from Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia. He reflects on questions that remain urgent and relevant today, including conceptions of Blackness, Africanness, and existential freedom. Taken together, these essays reveal Senghor to be a complex and wide-ranging thinker and a key figure in African intellectual history as well as decolonial thought more broadly. Accompanied by a translator's note and robust critical introduction, the volume is organized into three parts: a first part on Negritude as an African humanism; a second part on Negritude, aesthetics, and philosophy; a third part on Negritude, métissage and the "dialogue of cultures.""-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2025033841 |
| ISBN | 9781478038603 |
| ISBN | 1478038608 paperback |
| ISBN | 9781478033677 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1478033673 hardcover |
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