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.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Senghor, Léopold Sédar, 1906-2001, Author.

Contributor:

Calhoun, Doyle D., 1993- editor.

Fall, Alioune, 1989- editor.

Thiam, Cheikh, editor.

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Black people--Race identity.

Black people.

Politics and culture.

Negritude (Literary movement).

Civilization, Western.

Intercultural communication.

Cultural relations.

Africa, Sub-Saharan--Civilization.

Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Africa--Civilization.

Africa.

French-speaking countries.

Physical Description:

xi, 391 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

African philosophy and Black aesthetics

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"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.

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

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781478038603

1478038608

9781478033677

1478033673

OCLC:

1529600122