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Frantz Fanon: Toward a Revolutionary Humanism
Psychiatrist, philosopher, and revolutionary, Frantz Fanon is one of the most important intellectuals of the twentieth century. He presented powerful critiques of racism, colonialism, and nationalism in his classic books, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961). This biography reintroduces Fanon for a new generation of readers, revisiting these enduring themes while also arguing for those less appreciated--namely, his anti-Manichean sensibility and his personal ethic of radical empathy, both of which underpinned his utopian vision of a new humanism. Written with clarity and passion, Christopher J. Lee's account ultimately argues for the pragmatic idealism of Frantz Fanon and his continued importance today.
234 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2015
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About the author
Christopher J. Lee
29 books7 followersChristopher J. Lee is a Lecturer at CISA and in the Department of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand. He previously taught in the United States and Canada at Stanford, Harvard, and Dalhousie Universities and at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He received his PhD in African history from Stanford University. Trained as a socio-cultural historian, his teaching and research interests concern the social, political, and intellectual histories of southern Africa. He has conducted field and archival work in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, as well as having lived in Mozambique and Botswana. His recent work has addressed decolonization and the politics of the Indian Ocean during the Cold War. His articles and essays have appeared in the Journal of African History, Social History, Law and History Review, Politique Africaine, Gender and History, Transition, Radical History Review, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Kronos: Southern African Histories, and elsewhere. He is the editor of Making a World After Empire: The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives (2010). He has a forthcoming book with Duke University Press on the politics of race and nativism in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 4, 2016
His oeuvre amounts to two books and a bunch of essays assembled in two collections; he was from an out of the way French colony in the Caribbean and worked in what are now seen as marginal states in North Africa – Algeria & Tunisia – and died aged only 36: yet his impact and significance to anti-colonial struggles for independence, to political campaigns against racist and colonial oppression, and to scholarly work across a whole range of discipline areas has been considerable. His second book,
The Wretched of the Earth,
was essential reading for many on the Left in the 1960s through the 1980s, and seems to be making a bit of a come-back.
Despite all this and despite the rise in his recent profile, as Christopher Lee quite properly points out in the very good biography, most discussions of Fanon analyse the texts with little attention to the man other than noting his colonial status and his training as a psychiatrist. Some will note his at times elliptical writing style without really getting to the crux of the way he often seems to write himself into the texts especially but not only Black Skin, White Masks while other may note his status as a multiply displaced colonial. Lee sets out to get beyond this cursory treatment and to provide an introduction to Fanon for new readers and for new times. In doing so he argues that Fanon approached politics fro and operated within a position of radical empathy, which he argues “seeks to move Fanon away from textual abstraction by outlining a personal and more affective dimension to his political commitments” (p29). It may be that I have over-read this case, but I see radical empathy as also being an implicit critique of the dominance of a narrowly defined and exclusivist form of identity politics.
Lee achieves his goal admirably; the text is scholarly but highly accessible, while effectively weaving together the text and the person, the politics and the intellectual trends of the times. He also shows how and why Fanon’s place in and around the Algerian revolution is so important to both the message and the man, and to the significance of those four books. Crucially, given the terms of current discourses of violence and the ubiquity of the increasingly meaningless word ‘terrorism’ Lee confronts the criticism of Fanon as endorsing violence (a significant element of The Wretched of the Earth) in the terms of this contemporary discourse.
Lee also positions Fanon effectively in post-war French philosophical traditions, highlights the ways his arguments link to anti-colonial activists such as Ghandi and others such as Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu but also to proponents of armed struggle – Che, Mao, Castro and Cabral – as well as advocates of Black Consciousness such as Steve Biko and the Black Panthers. In doing so, Lee shows how and why Fanon’s work articulates to a wide range of late 20th century political issues, struggles and campaigns as well as to key conceptual and theoretical tendencies. As such, he makes a compelling case of the continuing significance and relevance of Fanon.
This is an excellent introduction to the man and his work, and in doing so shows both his importance in his time and the significance of his legacy today. Highly recommended.
Despite all this and despite the rise in his recent profile, as Christopher Lee quite properly points out in the very good biography, most discussions of Fanon analyse the texts with little attention to the man other than noting his colonial status and his training as a psychiatrist. Some will note his at times elliptical writing style without really getting to the crux of the way he often seems to write himself into the texts especially but not only Black Skin, White Masks while other may note his status as a multiply displaced colonial. Lee sets out to get beyond this cursory treatment and to provide an introduction to Fanon for new readers and for new times. In doing so he argues that Fanon approached politics fro and operated within a position of radical empathy, which he argues “seeks to move Fanon away from textual abstraction by outlining a personal and more affective dimension to his political commitments” (p29). It may be that I have over-read this case, but I see radical empathy as also being an implicit critique of the dominance of a narrowly defined and exclusivist form of identity politics.
Lee achieves his goal admirably; the text is scholarly but highly accessible, while effectively weaving together the text and the person, the politics and the intellectual trends of the times. He also shows how and why Fanon’s place in and around the Algerian revolution is so important to both the message and the man, and to the significance of those four books. Crucially, given the terms of current discourses of violence and the ubiquity of the increasingly meaningless word ‘terrorism’ Lee confronts the criticism of Fanon as endorsing violence (a significant element of The Wretched of the Earth) in the terms of this contemporary discourse.
Lee also positions Fanon effectively in post-war French philosophical traditions, highlights the ways his arguments link to anti-colonial activists such as Ghandi and others such as Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu but also to proponents of armed struggle – Che, Mao, Castro and Cabral – as well as advocates of Black Consciousness such as Steve Biko and the Black Panthers. In doing so, Lee shows how and why Fanon’s work articulates to a wide range of late 20th century political issues, struggles and campaigns as well as to key conceptual and theoretical tendencies. As such, he makes a compelling case of the continuing significance and relevance of Fanon.
This is an excellent introduction to the man and his work, and in doing so shows both his importance in his time and the significance of his legacy today. Highly recommended.
April 3, 2018
This serves as a brief but important critical introduction to Fanon. Even if you are familiar with his works, it is helpful in that it is informative about his history, his experiences, his views, his travels & how he is viewed, fairly & unfairly by critics & contemporaries. For those unaware of the martyr-like status he us given in some circles, this paints a picture of Frantz Fanon the man, the human being. I find often, most likely because we like easy solutions or answers that are easy to digest, we oversimplify things & people. Fanon has been no exception, especially concerning his views on violence as defense in response to violence as aggression & oppression.
Overall, it's a good book, that can help you maintain a critical eye whether you're reading Fanon's work for the first time, going over his works again or delving into biographies or books that focused on his views as a psychiatrist, a revolutionary/activist or just as a man. I got a lot more out if it than I expected after seeing how short it was.
Overall, it's a good book, that can help you maintain a critical eye whether you're reading Fanon's work for the first time, going over his works again or delving into biographies or books that focused on his views as a psychiatrist, a revolutionary/activist or just as a man. I got a lot more out if it than I expected after seeing how short it was.
October 11, 2018
Christopher Lee has produced an incredible biography on Fanon that at once covers Fanon's philosophy, personal-political context and the greater events occurring during and after Fanon's brief, yet powerful life. That said, there are also some underlying and quite troubling issues.
The strength of Lee's account is the sprawling historical trajectory that he places Fanon into. At one point, Lee remarks on Fanon's book 'The Wretched of the Earth' as being both a critique of the events unfolding and about to come to fruition in Algeria, but also as a critique of those who will inevitably declare a state of 'post' coloniality prematurely. Likewise, Lee outlines the (sometimes antagonistic) relationship between Fanon and the Algerian Liberation front (FLN).
In general, Lee's book acts as a good introduction to Fanon's philosophy, but there are some glaring errors that bring down the overall quality of the work. Lee, for example, suggests that 'Black Skin, White Masks' lacks "an overarching narrative structure." Its hard to imagine reading BSWM and not seeing the unified thesis of colonial subjects having to literally and figuratively mask themselves via the white gaze. There is a deeper series of movements in the text that can and should be unearthed, which I recommend turning to Lewis Gordon's work as a corrective.
A more troubling remark Lee makes follows immediately after the above where he writes, "it must be emphasized once more that Fanon was a French citizen, not a colonial subject as such."(76) On the one hand, Lee simply intends to suggest that Fanon had access to and enjoyed some assimilation or privilege in French social-political-cultural. However, that is precisely the COLONIAL problem Fanon is delineating in BSWM and his entire corpus and being. Fanon IS a colonized subject of French colonialism. That is literally his biography. This is something that Fanon cannot escape either physically by traveling to France (as well as fighting in defense of it) or Algeria, nor can he escape it culturally, linguistically, or historically etc. at least not in the sense of assimilation.
As a biography, Lee's text is good. As an explanation of Fanon's philosophy, it has some issues, but still relatively good. I would recommend reading Fanon's actual words if you are looking for a better and more robust understanding of Fanon's though.
The strength of Lee's account is the sprawling historical trajectory that he places Fanon into. At one point, Lee remarks on Fanon's book 'The Wretched of the Earth' as being both a critique of the events unfolding and about to come to fruition in Algeria, but also as a critique of those who will inevitably declare a state of 'post' coloniality prematurely. Likewise, Lee outlines the (sometimes antagonistic) relationship between Fanon and the Algerian Liberation front (FLN).
In general, Lee's book acts as a good introduction to Fanon's philosophy, but there are some glaring errors that bring down the overall quality of the work. Lee, for example, suggests that 'Black Skin, White Masks' lacks "an overarching narrative structure." Its hard to imagine reading BSWM and not seeing the unified thesis of colonial subjects having to literally and figuratively mask themselves via the white gaze. There is a deeper series of movements in the text that can and should be unearthed, which I recommend turning to Lewis Gordon's work as a corrective.
A more troubling remark Lee makes follows immediately after the above where he writes, "it must be emphasized once more that Fanon was a French citizen, not a colonial subject as such."(76) On the one hand, Lee simply intends to suggest that Fanon had access to and enjoyed some assimilation or privilege in French social-political-cultural. However, that is precisely the COLONIAL problem Fanon is delineating in BSWM and his entire corpus and being. Fanon IS a colonized subject of French colonialism. That is literally his biography. This is something that Fanon cannot escape either physically by traveling to France (as well as fighting in defense of it) or Algeria, nor can he escape it culturally, linguistically, or historically etc. at least not in the sense of assimilation.
As a biography, Lee's text is good. As an explanation of Fanon's philosophy, it has some issues, but still relatively good. I would recommend reading Fanon's actual words if you are looking for a better and more robust understanding of Fanon's though.
October 30, 2017
Very Good introductory book on Fanon, his work, and context.
February 5, 2025
wonderful biography and introduction to the first and most indispensable post-colonial thinker i ever read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews