CRNE MASKE, BELE RUKE – KOLEBANjE SOPSTVA U PESNIČKOJ ZBIRCI PALMA NAD MOJOM PATNjOM L. S. SENGORA

Abstract

The focus of this research is the presentation of negritude identity in Senghor’s poetry collection „Palm over my suffering”. By shedding light on the concept of negritude we want to present Other and the otherness of the extreme marginalized world that is inside Senghor’s poetry and philosophy allowed to speak about himself. Accordingly, the most dominant motif in the poetry is the subjugated black masks and subjugating white hands, as two identity points of view placed against each other. Analytical approach to the excerpted material reveals the awareness of the existence, and therefore the preservation of the Negritude authenticity as a strong point that resists Eurocentrism. Also, the presence of images of black women, the poet’s effort to return to the traditional, primordial and thereby preserve the African is noticeable culture from fully merging into the New World, establishing it in Eternity. Use of a European language for writing of the Negro-African value system into the discourse from which it was squeezed out, testifies to the impossibility of a complete of writing the African identity without applying the European one as a powerful signifier.