Entre história e ficção: O fracasso do homem de exceção. Une saison au Congo (Aimé Césaire) e Lumumba (Raoul Peck)

• Main Author: Fabrice Schurmans
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2015-05-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: Aimé Césaire (1913-2008); cinema; colonial history; fiction; Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961); Raoul Peck (1953-)
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/5888

This essay examines how Aimé Césaire’s tragedy Une Saison au Congo [A Season in the Congo] and Raoul Peck’s film Lumumba contribute to the production of historical discourse about the death of Patrice Lumumba. In the first part, I discuss the relationship between fiction and History in light of the current debates on the capacity of the novel to tell History, as well as on History’s contributions to fiction. In the second section, the article examines the respective historical contexts of the play and the film in order to bolster a comparative analysis of both works of fiction. Finally, the third part will highlight how Césaire and Peck represent Lumumba and critically reassess and engage with the Belgian colonial past.