by Joel Pearson, August 2012
Jean-Paul
Sartre was born in 1906, at the beginning of what would prove to be a
century of great turbulence. Two cataclysmic wars would ravage Europe
as ‘modernity’ shuddered through society. In a climate of
alienation, marginalization and violence, Sartre developed his
diagnosis of the human condition. His writings – plays,
biographies, novels and notebooks – explored the problems of
“existential thought (la contingence) and the vicissitudes
of social history through the troubled lives of individual actors”
(Jules-Rosette, 2007:266). With the smoke of Auschwitz still looming
large over a continent in ruin after the Second World War, Sartre’s
political work interrogated how the devastations of fascism, racism
and inequality had erupted, and what their effects were on the
individual psyche (Jules-Rosette, 2007:266). In 1944, as the war
petered out in Europe and an increasing number of Jews returned home
from Nazi Germany, Sartre set out to examine the roots of
anti-Semitism in France. Anti-Semite and Jew (Réflections
sur la question juive) examined the “interpersonal construction
of personal identities” in the dramatic personae of the
anti-Semite, the democrat, the inauthentic and the authentic Jew
(Walzer, 1995:xxvi). His central claim, perhaps: identity and culture
cannot be reduced to timeless essences; they are socially constituted
within historical situations; and both individual and group
perceptions are intimately tied to the (often hostile) perceptions of
the “other/s” (Walzer, 1995:xxiii).
Showing posts with label Black Skin White Masks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Skin White Masks. Show all posts
Friday, 10 August 2012
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
'Fanon & Violence': A lecture by Lewis Gordon
Click here to watch this video at the Histories of Violence project.
The Histories of Violence “Fanon & Violence” lecture is provided by Professor Lewis R. Gordon (Temple University, U.S.A.). At the time of filming, Professor Gordon was the Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. He was also Director of the Centre for Afro-Jewish Studies while a Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Professor Gordon has written many works in race theory, Africana philosophy, postcolonial phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political philosophy, film and literature, philosophy of education, philosophy of human sciences, and a variety of topics in the public interest. Before joining Temple, he taught at Brown University for eight years, during which the program in Afro-American Studies became the Department of Africana Studies under his leadership as chairperson. He also taught at Purdue University and Yale University, and he is Ongoing Visiting Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Professor Gordon has presented lectures internationally, and has been a recipient of numerous awards and distinguished fellowships.
The Histories of Violence “Fanon & Violence” lecture is provided by Professor Lewis R. Gordon (Temple University, U.S.A.). At the time of filming, Professor Gordon was the Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. He was also Director of the Centre for Afro-Jewish Studies while a Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Professor Gordon has written many works in race theory, Africana philosophy, postcolonial phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political philosophy, film and literature, philosophy of education, philosophy of human sciences, and a variety of topics in the public interest. Before joining Temple, he taught at Brown University for eight years, during which the program in Afro-American Studies became the Department of Africana Studies under his leadership as chairperson. He also taught at Purdue University and Yale University, and he is Ongoing Visiting Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Professor Gordon has presented lectures internationally, and has been a recipient of numerous awards and distinguished fellowships.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Through the Zone of Non-being: A Reading of Black Skin, White Masks in Celebration of Fanon's Eightieth Birthday
by Lewis R. Gordon, The C.L.R. James Journal 11, no. 1 (Summer 2005): 1–43.
In celebration of Frantz Fanon’s eightieth birth, Gordon explores Fanon’s socioigenic approach in Black Skin, White Masks and argues that through Fanon's particular engagement of human failure and “non-beingness” that a new type of text and discourse emerges. He proposes that Fanon traverses both disciplinary and linguistic boundaries to challenge the viability of any single science providing a comprehensive analysis of human beings.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Fanon and the Epidemiology of Oppression
by Ziauddin Sardar, Frantz Fanon International
I think it would be good if certain thing were said (Frantz Fanon).
(Direct quotations from Black Skin, White Masks are set in italics)
The opening gambit of Black Skin, White Masks ushers us towards an imminent experience : the explosion will not happen today. But a type of explosion is about to unfold in the text in front of us, in the motivations it seeks, in the different world it envisages and aims to create.
(Direct quotations from Black Skin, White Masks are set in italics)
The opening gambit of Black Skin, White Masks ushers us towards an imminent experience : the explosion will not happen today. But a type of explosion is about to unfold in the text in front of us, in the motivations it seeks, in the different world it envisages and aims to create.
Friday, 17 June 2011
The Fact of Blackness
by Frantz Fanon, Chapter Five of Black Skin, White Masks, archived at Chicken Bones
“Dirty nigger!” Or simply, “Look, a Negro!”
I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects.
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