The Wretched of the Earth
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 Cover to the 2004 translation |
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| Author | Frantz Fanon |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les Damnés de la Terre |
| Translator | Constance Farrington (1963) Richard Philcox (2004) |
| Language | French |
| Subject(s) | Offenses against the person France--Colonies--Africa Algeria--History--1945-1962 |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1961 |
The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre, first published 1961) is Frantz Fanon's best-known work, written during and regarding the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. As a psychiatrist, Fanon explored the psychological effect of colonisation on the psyche of a nation as well as its broader implications for building a movement for decolonization.
A controversial introduction to the text by Jean-Paul Sartre presents the thesis as an advocacy of violence.[1] This focus derives from the book’s opening chapter ‘Concerning Violence’ which is a caustic indictment of colonialism and its legacy. It discusses violence as a means of liberation and a catharsis to subjugation. It also details the violence of the colonialism as a process itself. The interpretation of the text as a promotion of violence is argued as a limited way of approaching the text fueled essentially by Sartre’s opening comments.[2]
Further reading can find a thorough critique of nationalism and imperialism while also developing to cover areas such as mental health and the role of intellectuals in revolutionary situations. Fanon goes into great detail explaining that revolutionary groups should look to the lumpenproletariat for the force needed to expel colonists. The lumpenproletariat in traditional Marxist theories are considered the lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked class consciousness. Fanon uses the term to refer to those inhabitants of colonized countries who are not involved in industrial production, particularly peasants living outside the cities. He argues that only this group, unlike the industrial proletariat, has sufficient independence from the colonists to successfully make a revolution against them.
Also important is Fanon's view of the role of language and how it molds the position of "natives", or those victimized by colonization. Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth has become a handbook for any and all political leaders faced with any type of decolonization. It is still read in the Pentagon today as advice on dealing with the conflict in Iraq.[3] There are two different English translations in publication, the most recent, by Richard Philcox, being better accepted.
The original title of the book is an allusion to the opening words of The Internationale.
[edit] References
- ^ Jean-Paul Sartre Preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”
- ^ Homi Bhabha's 2004 foreword pg xxi; Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, 2004.
- ^ Homi Bhabha's 2004 foreword pg xxx-xxxi; Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, 2004.
