Suzanne Césaire (née Roussi; 11 August 1915 – 16 May 1966), born in Martinique, an overseas department of France, was a French writer, teacher, scholar, anti-colonial and feminist activist, and Surrealist.
[1] She began her education at her local primary school in Rivière-Salée in Martinique (which still had the status of a French colonial territory at that time), before attending a girls' boarding-school in the capital, Fort-de-France.
However, in addition to her important literary essays, her role as editor of Tropiques can be regarded as an equally significant (if often overlooked) contribution to Caribbean literature.
Tropiques was the most influential francophone Caribbean journal of its time and is widely acknowledged for the foundational role it played in the development of Martiniquan literature.
[8] She managed the journal's relations with the censor—a particularly difficult role given the oppositional stance of Tropiques towards the war-time Vichy government—as well as taking responsibility for the printing.
Her encounter with André Breton opened the way for her development of Afro-Surrealism, which followed in the footsteps of her use of surrealist concepts to illuminate the colonial dilemma.
Suzanne Césaire's repudiation of simple idealised answers - whether assimilationist, Africanist, or creole - to the situation of colonialism in the Caribbean has proved increasingly influential in later postcolonial studies.
[citation needed] Suzanne Césaire’s work from the first year of Tropiques raves over her European inspirations such as the German ethnographer Leo Frobenius, the French professor, philosopher, and art critic Emile Chartier, and the surrealist Andre Breton, and their potential position in Martinique.
[11] Recent scholar Joseph-Gabriel argues that Césaire contributed an influential foundation for subsequent Caribbean anti-imperialist literature and political activity.
In letters to Gauclére, Césaire described her role in Haiti as an emissary who provided teacher training, wrote literary analysis, and edited dissertations for the purpose of supporting Aime's teaching.
[12] Suzanne Cesaire's work celebrated the multiethnic and multicultural influences that formed the Caribbean cultural identity of her era.