Fanon and Feminism

by Laurie Cashdan, News & Letters

T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting. Frantz Fanon: Conflicts & Feminisms. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.

Tracy Sharpley-Whiting's new book on conflicting attitudes of feminists to the Martinican revolutionary philosopher Frantz Fanon is sure to stir up new controversies regarding the value of Fanon's writings for feminism. We cannot afford to allow anti-Fanon feminist arguments to remain unchallenged, she shows, if we are to work out a radical humanist vision for today.

Rethinking Fanon: The Continuing Dialogue, edited by Nigel Gibson

French West Indian psychoanalyst & social philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) rejected his French citizenship & became a strong advocate of the Algerian liberation movement in the 1950s. A brilliant scholar who developed the theory that some neuroses are socially generated, Fanon's revolutionary works The Wretched of the Earth, Toward the African Revolution, & Black Skin White Masks founded an African intellectual awakening. The rebirth of Fanonism today in universities & the English speaking world is a testament to his relevance.