FANON: a Critical Reader
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FANON: A Critical Reader Lewis R. Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and Renee T. White 1 Fanon: A Critical Reader BLACKWELL CRITICAL READERS Blackwell's Critical Readers series presents a collection of linked perspec tives on continental philosophers, social and cultural theorists. Edited and introduced by acknowledged experts and written by representa tives of different schools and positions, the series embodies debate, dissent and a committed heterodoxy. From Foucault to Derrida, from Heidegger to Nietzsche, Blackwell Critical Readers address figureswhose work requires elucidation by a variety of perspectives. Volumes in the series include both primary and secondary bibliographies. David Wood: Dem'da: A Cn'tical Reader Hubert Dreyfus and Harrison Hall: Heidegger: A Critical Reader Gregory Elliot: Althusser: A Cn:tical Reader Douglas Kellner: Baudrillard: A Critical Reader Peter Sedgwick: Nietzsche: A Critical Reader Lewis R Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, and Renee T. White: Fanon: A Critical Reader Fanon: A Critical Reader Edited, with an Introduction and Translations by Lewis R. Gordon T. Dene an Sharpley-Whiting Renee T. White Copyright © Blackwell Publishers, 1996 First published 1996 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 lJF UK Blackwell Publishers Inc. 238 Main Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fanon: a critical reader/edited, with an introduction, and translations by Lewis R. Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley-\X.'hiting, Renee T. White. p. cm. - (Blackwell critical readers) Based on the eleventh annual Symposium on African-American Culture and Philosophy, held at Purdue University on March 23-24, 1995. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-557-86895-6 (alk. paper). - ISBN 1-557-86896-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961 - Contributions in social sciences - Congresses. I. Gordon, Lewis R. (Lewis Ricardo), 1962-. II. Sharpley Whiting, T. Denean. III. White, Renee T. IV. Symposium on African American Culture and Philosophy (1 1th: 1995: Purdue University) V. Series. H59.F28F36 1996 300 - dc20 Bn'tish Library Cataloging in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record forthis book is available from the British Library. Typeset in Plantin on l0/12pt by Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by TJ Press Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall. This book is printed on acid-free paper In memory of Frantz Fanon (1925-6 1) and Walter Rodney (1942-80), and for Lisa, Mathieu, and Jenny, with love LRG In loving memory of Sterling Christopher Williams (1975-94), Linda Diann (1950-89), and for my supportive family. Gilman W. Whiting - beaucoup de bises TDSW For Clara Johnson-W'hitc, Richard W'hitc, and Alina Dovin RTW Contents List of Contributors Foreword xiv Leonard Harris and CarolynJohnson Acknowledgments xviii Note on the Text xx Introduction: Five Stages of Fanon Studies Lewis R. Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley- W'hiting, and Renee T. W'hite Part I Oppression Fanon, Oppression, and Resentment: The Black Experience in the United States 11 Floyd W Hayes, Ill Perspectives of Du Bois and Fanon on the Psychology of Oppression 24 Stanley 0. Gaines, Jr. Racism and Objectification: Reflections on Themes from Fanon 35 Richard Schmitt Part II Questioning the Human Sciences 4 Fanon's Body of Black Experience 53 Ronald A. T. Judy viii Contents The Black and the Body Politic: Fanon's Existential Phenomenological Critique of Psychoanalysis 74 Lewis R. Gordon 6 To Cure and to Free: The Fanonian Project of "Decolonized Psychiatry" 85 Fran�oise Verges Revolutionary Theory: Sociological Dimensions of Fanon's Sociologie d'une revolution JOO Renee T. White Part III Identity and the Dialectics of Recognition Casting the Slough: Fanon's New Humanism for a New Humanity 113 Robert Bernasconi Fanon, Sartre, and Identity Politics 122 Sonia Kruks 10 On the Difference between the Hegelian and Fanonian Dialectic of Lordship and Bondage 134 Lou Turner Part IV Fanon and the Emancipation of Women of Color 11 Anti-black Femininity and Mixed-race Identity: Engaging Fanon to Reread Capecia 155 T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting 12 Violent Women: Surging into Forbidden Quarters 163 Nada Elia 13 To Conquer the Veil: Woman as Critique of Liberalism 170 Eddy Souffrant 14 In/Visibility and Super/Vision: Fanon on Race, Veils, and Discourses of Resistance 179 David Theo Goldberg Part V Postcolonial Dreams, Neocolonial Realities 15 Public (Re)Memory, Vindicating Narratives, and Troubling Beginnings: Toward a Critical Postcolonial Psychoanalytical Theory 203 Maurice Stevens Contents ix 16 Fanon, African and Afro-Caribbean Philosophy 220 Paget Henry 17 Fanon and the Contemporary Discourse of African Philosophy 244 Tsenay Serequeberhan 18 On the Misadventures of National Consciousness: A Retrospect on Frantz Fanon's Gift of Prophecy 255 Olufemi Taiwo Part VI Resistance and Revolutionary Violence 19 Jammin' the Airwaves and Tuning into the Revolution: The Dialectics of the Radio in L 'An V de la revolution algerienne 273 Nigel Gibson 20 Fanon on the Role of Violence in Liberation: A Comparison with Gandhi and Mandela 283 Gail M. Presbey 21 Fanon's Tragic Revolutionary Violence 297 Lewis R. Gordon Afterword: "Bread and Land": Frantz Fanon's "Native Intellectual" 309 Joy Ann James Bibliography 312 Index 334 Contributors Robert Bernasconi is Moss Professor of Excellence in Philosophy at the University of Memphis. He is author of numerous articles in phi losophy and has written two books, Heidegger's Historyof Being and the Question of Language (Humanities) and Heidegger in Question (Human ities), and co-edited Rereading Levinas (Northwestern) and Derrida and Dijferance (Northwestern) . He is currently researching on Sartre's, Fanon's, and Richard Wright's analyses of racism. Nada Elia teaches English at WesternIllinois University, Macomb. She has published articles and book chapters on resistance narratives, par ticularly by women, in a number of national and internationaljournals. She is currently editing a collection of personal narratives by first generation immigrants to the USA, entitled, Bring Me Your Poor, Your We ary. Stanley 0. Gaines, Jr. teaches psychology at Pomona College and Black Studies in the Montclair Graduate School. He is author of numer ous articles on psychology and the mental life of African Americans. Nigel Gibson has taught political science at Columbia University, where he received his doctorate in political science. He is editor of the forthcoming Rethinking Fanon: A Critical Anthology on Aspects of Frantz Fanon's Thought. David Theo Goldberg is Director of the School of Justice Studies at Arizona State University and Professor of Justice Studies with joint appointments to the Ph.D. committee on law and social science, the Ph.D. program in communication studies, and an affiliate appointment in philosophy. He is the author of Racist Culture (Blackwell) and editor List of Contributors xi of Anatomy of Racism (Minnesota) and Multicultural: A Critical Reader (Blackwell), and coeditor of Social Identities: A Journalfor the Study of Race, Nation and Culture. He is currently working on books on the racial state and on the politics of preferences. Lewis R. Gordon teaches philosophy and African-American studies at Purdue University. He has written articles on philosophy of human science and racism, and he is the author of Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (Humanities), Fanon and the Crisis of European Man: An Essay on Philosophy and the Human Sciences (Routledge), and Her Majesty's Other Children: Philosophical Sketches from a Neocolonial Age (forthcom ing) . He is editor of Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy (Routledge), and coeditor of Black Texts and Black Textuality (forthcoming). Leonard Harris is Director of African-American Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. He is well known forhis articles on Alain Locke and critical race theory and he is editor of several books which include Philosophy Born of Struggle (Kendall/Hunt), Children in Chaos (Kendall/Hunt), The Philosophy of Alain Locke (Temple), The Concept of Race (Humanities), and he is currently working on Ambi'guity, Convergence, and Transgression in Black. Floyd W. Hayes, III teaches political science and African-American studies at Purdue University. He is author of numerous articles on public policy and political theory. He has published in numerous jour nals of politics and African-American studies, and he is editor of the anthology, A Turbulent Voy age : Readings in African-American Studies (College). He is currently working on a book, tentatively titled Afn.can Amen·can Cy nicism: Cultural Crosscurrents in a Postindustrial-Managerial Polity . Paget Henry is Director of African-American Studies and Professor of Sociology at Brown University. He is also a member of Brown's Center forthe Study of Race and Ethnicity and formerpresident of the C. L. R. James Society. He has published numerous articles on the political economy of the Caribbean and African and Afro-Caribbeanphilosophy, and he is the author of Pen"pheral Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Antigua (Transactions) and coeditor of C. L. R. James' Can.bbean (Duke) . Joy Ann James teaches feminist theory and critical race theory in women's studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and in ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.