Themes of Idealism and Nostalgia in Negritude Poetry

Abstract

The central thrust of this paper is on the themes of idealism and nostalgia in Negritude poetry. Some critics regard negritude poetry as being sentimental and idealistic. Though true, this observation may be explained by the fact that the historical antecedence that gave rise to this literacy art form, in the first place, necessitated its thematic features. Negritude literature was a child of historical circumstances that gave a voice to Francophone students in France. They suffered racial discrimination because of their skin colour. If their literary works were written to repudiate the negative depiction of the black race by pseudo-scientific theories propounded by racist ethnologists like Levy Bruhl, de Gobineau and Spengler, as well as extol Africa, then these writers became so passionate as to sound strident, idealistic, nostalgic and sentimental in the delivery of their craft.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 8(2), 127-139, 2011