Structure

The structure Césaire uses to write Discourse on Colonialism is relatively loose, as he opts to flow between topics. The work is divided into six parts, although these parts are neither labeled nor numbered. As such, the structure—or lack thereof—mimics discourse or conversation itself, which attains its structure through speech. The lack of structure also mimics the author’s polemical tone, in which the writer seems to speak, exasperated and angry, straight from his heart or from a less conscious part of his being.

Despite the lack of formal structure, Discourse on Colonialism nonetheless follows a kind of emotional, if not necessarily logical, progression. In the first unnumbered chapter, the author inverts the standard equations Western Europe likes to make—“Christianity = civilization, paganism = savagery” (33)—and shows how European civilization is itself barbaric. The second chapter shows how the barbarism and savagery of colonialism infects...