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Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)

Author of The Wretched of the Earth

38+ Works 7,575 Members 50 Reviews 15 Favorited

About the Author

Martinique islander by birth and a psychiatrist by training, Franz Fanon is better known as a pan-African revolutionary ideologue. His treatises on colonialism call for revolutionary confrontation with malignant colonial regimes, where necessary on the battlefield, and, more important, for the show more eradication of the most invidious form of colonialism, namely, colonial mentality. Fanon holds that this mentality prevents the African and the black person everywhere even from being aware of the seriousness of the social and personal deprivations of his or her colonized status. Fanon found his voice when he worked for the Algerian revolutionaries during the Algerian War of Independence against the French. Not only did he become deeply involved in the Algerian struggle, he also emerged as its principal ideologue and formulated his anticolonial writings from the Algerian experience. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Frantz Fanon

The Wretched of the Earth (1961) 4,192 copies
Black Skin, White Masks (1952) 2,378 copies
A Dying Colonialism (1959) 437 copies
Alienation and Freedom (2015) 88 copies
Concerning Violence (2008) 51 copies
The Fanon Reader (2006) 21 copies
Oeuvres (2011) 12 copies
Escritos políticos (2019) 11 copies
The Fact of Blackness (2015) 5 copies

Associated Works

The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Protest (1998) — Contributor — 31 copies
African Literature: an anthology of criticism and theory (2007) — Contributor — 23 copies
Frantz Fanon, psychiatry and politics (2017) — Associated Name — 10 copies

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Reviews

This book by Frantz Fanon is relevant today. The context of the book is Algeria and French colonialism, so it is interesting for anyone studying French colonialism in Algeria. However, the lessons are timeless.
Many countries suffered from colonialism and continue to struggle to find their national character in the post-colonial world.
Franz Fanton's writing, while balanced, conceals deep anger. There is anger he directs at the colonialists and towards native people who copy the colonialists and exploit their fellow citizens.
The last chapter, in which he talks about some of the mental problems arising from colonialism, is powerful.
The conclusion calls for his citizens to find themselves and not copy their old masters.
This book is brilliant and relevant today.
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RajivC | 28 other reviews | Jan 4, 2024 |
Pretty amazing. The final chapter, talking about his experience dealing with those traumatised in various ways by colonialism and the war as well as the bullshit given as explanations of Algerian behaviour by French psychiatrists, is horrifying and incredible. He has a great writing style which is clear and gets you caught up in his ideas of liberation - although I sometimes wish he said more on certain issues or whatever, you get a very clear picture of what he thinks. His descriptions of the problems of decolonisation ring true today. Important stuff if you're at all interested in the topic.… (more)
 
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tombomp | 28 other reviews | Oct 31, 2023 |
This was good, but dense, and I think I only absorbed a fraction of it, and will have to give it another go sometime. I honestly don't know how to begin rating or reviewing this kind of work. I kept finding parallels between what Fanon was saying about the colonized peoples, and the black population of North America, so argument for reparations hit a little deeper (especially after reading Te-Nehesi Coates essays and Ibram Kendi earlier this year).

His psychiatric case studies of the effects of colonization were also fascinating. It really shows the long term psychological effects of oppression.… (more)
 
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Andjhostet | 28 other reviews | Jul 4, 2023 |
An essential analysis of the psychosocial nature of blackness in the context of colonialism. Fanon is perhaps only hampered by his reliance on case studies representing the extremes of psychological conditions to explain and justify his more universal arguments about reactions to blackness. However, the phenomenological nature of the book allows for narrative to lend powerful support to the central thesis of double consciousness and tension that exists in the world he inhabits. It is impossible to ignore the lived experience of the Antillean as presented by Fanon. It calls us to challenge our perceptions, recognize our failings, and most importantly to allow a dialectical process to reimagine our relation to the other.… (more)
 
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oppositeway94 | 14 other reviews | May 14, 2023 |

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Works
38
Also by
4
Members
7,575
Popularity
#3,224
Rating
4.1
Reviews
50
ISBNs
162
Languages
18
Favorited
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