Frantz Fanon and Violence: Document Analysis of Frantz Fanon’s “On Violence” in The Wretched of the Earth
Sarah Monnier 10062195
Assignment 2: Violence and Frantz Fanon
HIST 273: New Imperialism
Dr. Patrick Corbeil
November 10, 2017
To begin, Frantz Fanon’s view of violence is not merely the advocacy of blind violence, rather violence is a reaction to the fundamental political, and psychological effects of colonialism.Violence to Fanon is a fundamental inescapable part of every aspect of colonial society which he splits as two separate connected analysis of colonial violence and reactionary violence. Colonial violence begins as part of the very nature of the colonial structure which should be viewed according Fanon’s …show more content…
In Wretched of the Earth, Fanon is arguing against the French traditional diagnosis of colonial people as being inherently self destroying. Fanon instead attempts to find a different way to understand the colonial mentality. Fanon’s main argument is that the colonial system creates a bond between self and other in which the colonized identity is based on the oppressors view of them as an inhuman slave workforce. Fanon argues that the colonized subject can never reaches self-realization because they are confined within colonial structure’s “Manichean” or view of duality. This creates psychologically self-internalized oppression with the indigenous people are unable to see outside of the colonial system. Fanon concludes that this assertion of superiority and separation within the colonial system dehumanizes the colonial subject to basic tools creating “tension” within the body of colonized subject to drive towards freedom, yet unable to achieve it within the colonial system. Consequently, Fanon defines colonial violence as the systematic physical and mental oppression which dehumanizes colonial subjects in order to achieve forced political and economic control. The only way to colonial subject to regain their humanity is through the embrace of violence because violence is the only “shared language” in their struggle against …show more content…
These revolutionary violence to Fanon is both an individual and collective endeavour. For the individual revolutionary, violence is an “irreversible act” in which an individual is willing die in the pursuit of freedom. In this moment of self sacrifice, the individual is given agency to shape their role within society by acting as “cleansing force” ridding the individual of their “inferiority complex.” Furthermore, this revolutionary violence “unifies the people” moving them together to create a counterbalance to colonial violence. Fanon argues this local counterviolence goes even further since due to the atmospheric nature of violence, counter violence is not containable across geographical boundaries breaking down old borders and divisions. From within this destruction a new society will be formed without violence based upon Fanon’s view of a collective Third World which is based on a common shared nature for all humans regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliations or gender erasing all previous nationalistic borders.Within this new human solidarity which Anthony C Alessandrini called “transnational humanism” both colonizers and colonized people within previously colonized areas will move away from imperial past and communicate as equals. Jean-Paul Sartre within his introduction presents this new humanism as almost
Sarah Monnier 10062195
Assignment 2: Violence and Frantz Fanon
HIST 273: New Imperialism
Dr. Patrick Corbeil
November 10, 2017
To begin, Frantz Fanon’s view of violence is not merely the advocacy of blind violence, rather violence is a reaction to the fundamental political, and psychological effects of colonialism.Violence to Fanon is a fundamental inescapable part of every aspect of colonial society which he splits as two separate connected analysis of colonial violence and reactionary violence. Colonial violence begins as part of the very nature of the colonial structure which should be viewed according Fanon’s …show more content…
In Wretched of the Earth, Fanon is arguing against the French traditional diagnosis of colonial people as being inherently self destroying. Fanon instead attempts to find a different way to understand the colonial mentality. Fanon’s main argument is that the colonial system creates a bond between self and other in which the colonized identity is based on the oppressors view of them as an inhuman slave workforce. Fanon argues that the colonized subject can never reaches self-realization because they are confined within colonial structure’s “Manichean” or view of duality. This creates psychologically self-internalized oppression with the indigenous people are unable to see outside of the colonial system. Fanon concludes that this assertion of superiority and separation within the colonial system dehumanizes the colonial subject to basic tools creating “tension” within the body of colonized subject to drive towards freedom, yet unable to achieve it within the colonial system. Consequently, Fanon defines colonial violence as the systematic physical and mental oppression which dehumanizes colonial subjects in order to achieve forced political and economic control. The only way to colonial subject to regain their humanity is through the embrace of violence because violence is the only “shared language” in their struggle against …show more content…
These revolutionary violence to Fanon is both an individual and collective endeavour. For the individual revolutionary, violence is an “irreversible act” in which an individual is willing die in the pursuit of freedom. In this moment of self sacrifice, the individual is given agency to shape their role within society by acting as “cleansing force” ridding the individual of their “inferiority complex.” Furthermore, this revolutionary violence “unifies the people” moving them together to create a counterbalance to colonial violence. Fanon argues this local counterviolence goes even further since due to the atmospheric nature of violence, counter violence is not containable across geographical boundaries breaking down old borders and divisions. From within this destruction a new society will be formed without violence based upon Fanon’s view of a collective Third World which is based on a common shared nature for all humans regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliations or gender erasing all previous nationalistic borders.Within this new human solidarity which Anthony C Alessandrini called “transnational humanism” both colonizers and colonized people within previously colonized areas will move away from imperial past and communicate as equals. Jean-Paul Sartre within his introduction presents this new humanism as almost