Black Skin, White Masks
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| Black Skin, White Masks | |
| Author | Frantz Fanon |
|---|---|
| Original title | Peau noire, masques blancs |
| Translator | Charles L. Markmann |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Series | Collections Esprit. La condition humaine |
| Subject(s) | Black race. Racial discrimination. Racism. Blacks--Social conditions. |
| Publisher | Paris, Éditions du Seuil |
| Publication date | 1952 |
| Published in English |
1967 |
| Pages | 222 |
Black Skin, White Masks is a 1952 book written by Frantz Fanon originally published in French as Peau noire, masques blancs.
In this study, Fanon uses psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical theory to explain the feelings of dependency and inadequacy that Black people experience in a White world. He speaks of the divided self-perception of the Black Subject who has lost his native cultural originality and embraced the culture of the mother country. As a result of the inferiority complex engendered in the mind of the Black Subject, he will try to appropriate and imitate the cultural code of the colonizer. The behaviour, Fanon argues, is even more evident in upwardly mobile and educated Black people who can afford to acquire the trappings of White culture. Originally formulated to combat the oppression of black people, Fanon's insights are still influential today, being utilized by various groups such as the Palestinians, the Tamils, African Americans and others, and used in their struggle for cultural and political autonomy. Fanon presents both historical interpretation and underlying social indictment.
Contents |
[edit] Analysis
[edit] Gender and sexuality
Fanon follows Sigmund Freud in examining race relations through a male-normative and hetero-normative lens. Gwen Bergner writes that with the book's opening question, "What does the black man want?", Fanon "wrests the psychoanalytic territory of otherness from femininity".[1]
[edit] Reception
Black Skin, White Masks remained obscure for decades after its initial publication. Since the 1980s, it has become well-known as an anti-colonial and anti-racist work in English-speaking countries. However, it remains a "relatively minor work" in francophone nations, despite its explicit connection with those countries.[2] Modern discussions among theorists of nationalism, anti-colonialism, and liberation have largely focused on Fanon's later, more revolutionary works, rather than the psychoanalytic explanation of colonial relations.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Bergner, Gwen (1995-01). "Who Is That Masked Woman? Or, the Role of Gender in Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks". PMLA 110 (1): 76. ISSN 00308129.
- ^ Silverman, Maxim; Max Silverman (2006). Frantz Fanon's 'Black Skin, White Masks': New Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester University Press, 1.
- ^ Bergner 1995, 75-76
[edit] External links
- Quotes in English
