Thinking Fanon: Fanonian Translations in and outside the academy

A presentation by Nigel Gibson (author of Fanonian Practices in South Africa) hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Thought and the African Studies Workshop at the University of Chicago, February 21, 2012

Thinking Fanon, 50 years later: Fanonian translations in and beyond “Fanon Studies"

by Nigel C. Gibson

This is the text of talk given sponsored by the African Studies Workshop, the Center for International Studies, the Social Theory Workshop, and the Reproduction of Race and Racial Ideologies Workshop at the University of Chicago, February 21, 2012.

 In the Cheikh Djemal’s film “Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work,” Rehda Malek, one of the co-editors of El Moudjahid at the time, recalls how he was “impressed by Fanon’s intellectual vivacity and the speed in which he could write papers,” adding that “he could write an article almost without crossing out a word in a direct and spontaneous way.”

Relative Opacity: A New Translation of Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth - Mission Betrayed or Fulfilled?

by Nigel Gibson, Social Identities, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2007, pp. 69-95

Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary text The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on English-speaking readers since it first appeared in translation in 1963. This article charts the shifting contextualization of the book as it has framed subsequent editions, culminating in an exploration of the most recent translation by Richard Philcox. By contrasting this translation of the book with previous versions, and also by critically examining the new forward by Homi K. Bhabha, the author explores Fanon’s relevance to the current social and political world. He finds continued relevance for The Wretched in Fanon’s quest to get beyond the manicheanism that characterises the colonial and anti-colonial periods as well as the contemporary rhetoric of Bush and Bin Laden. The author argues that our engagement with Fanon should begin from his most critical insights into the postcolonial period and in his critique of the national bourgeoisie and postcolonial petit bourgeoisie, which is grounded in an engagement with Fanon as a living thinker.

The BROTHERWISE DISPATCH vs. LEWIS R. GORDON

The Brotherwise Dispatch 

BROTHERWISE DISPATCH-In your book Fanon and the Crisis of European Man you describe Fanon as the "Locus of many pressing questions in contemporary philosophy." Could you qualify that statement for our readers and maybe share what you consider those "pressing questions" to be?