SOURCE: "The Aesthetics of Léon-Gontran Damas," in Présence Africaine, Nos. 121 and 122, 1982, pp. 154-65.

Racine is a Guadeloupean-born educator and critic. In the essay below, he discusses the style of Damas's poetry.

What is meant by the "aesthetics of Léon-Gontran Damas" is, as one may guess, his art as a writer. This art is discernible in both his prose and his verse. Within the limits of this presentation, it is not possible to describe the talent of the brilliant essayist of Retour de Guyane, "Misère Noire" [Esprit (June 1, 1939)] or "89 et nous les Noirs" [Europe (May-August 1939)] nor to demonstrate the art of the griot-like story-teller of Veillées Noires. I shall focus my remarks on the verse of the poet whose touch can be perceived anyhow in most of his prose works.

It is not difficult for a discriminating reader of Damas's poetry to detect some...