Fanon
The Postcolonial Imagination
Key Contemporary Thinkers
1. Edition April 2003
264 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Frantz Fanon was a French psychiatrist turned Algerian
revolutionary of Martinican origin, and one of the most important
and controversial thinkers of the postwar period. A veritable
"intellect on fire," Fanon was a radical thinker with
original theories on race, revolution, violence, identity and
agency.
This book is an excellent introduction to the ideas and legacy
of Fanon. Gibson explores him as a truly complex character in the
context of his time and beyond. He argues that for Fanon, theory
has a practical task to help change the world. Thus Fanon's
"untidy dialectic," Gibson contends, is a philosophy of
liberation that includes cultural and historical issues and visions
of a future society. In a profoundly political sense, Gibson asks
us to reevaluate Fanon's contribution as a critic of
modernity and reassess in a new light notions of consciousness,
humanism, and social change.
This is a fascinating study that will interest undergraduates
and above in postcolonial studies, literary theory, cultural
studies, sociology, politics, and social and political theory, as
well as general readers.
Abbreviations for Fanon's Works.
Introduction.
1. The Racial Gaze: Black Slave, White Master.
2. Psychoanalysis and the Black's Inferiority Complex.
3. Negritude and the Descent into a "Real Hell".
4. Becoming Algerian.
5. Violent Concerns.
6. Radical Mutations: Toward a Fighting Culture.
7. Crossing the Dividing Line: Spontaneity and Organization.
8. Nationalism and a New Humanism.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index
Nigel Gibson's rigorous and subtle analysis as a major humanistic
thinker about injustice, a serious critic of nationalism and, for
the first time, as an impressively profound philosopher of modern
post-colonial politics and culture." Edward W. Said, Columbia
University
"This definitive interpretation of Fanon brilliantly touches the
heart. Gibson presents a compelling and engaging analysis of
Fanon's original theory of the racial gaze, of revolution, and of
Fanon's complex theory of violence. All the perennial themes of
political theory are masterfully presented in this major book.
Readers will feel morally civilized after they read it." Teodros
Kiros, Harvard University
"Gibson's prose is elegant and clear and this book is, by far,
the best introduction to Fanon's life and work. But it does more
than this....The key idea that runs throughout the book is that of
the dialectic. Gibson argues that there is an unstable, critical
and creative element in the heart of FAnon's thought that seeks to
move through apparently irreconcilable contradictions. This kind of
analysis is what we would expect from any responsible engagement
with Fanon's work and Gibson develops it very well. But he goes
further and makes an original and significant contribution by
showing that for Fanon this kind of progress requires the
development of a fighting culture." Richard Pithouse, Sunday
Independent