Introductory description

Frantz Fanon is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th century. This module consists in a close reading of his two major works, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961), and of a series of other writings on racism, colonialism and mental illness. By addressing Fanon’s engagement with (and critique of) phenomenology, existentialism and psychoanalysis, it reconstructs his intellectual trajectory from his theorisation of blackness and anti-Black racism to his original views about a postcolonial culture and society.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (introduction & chapter 1); Sartre, ‘Black Orpheus’
Week 2: Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (sections from chapters 2-4); Capécia, I Am a Martinican Woman (sections); Guex, The Abandonment Neurosis (sections)
Week 3: Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (sections from chapters 5-8); Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (sections); Sartre, Being and Nothingness & ‘Anti-Semite and Jew’ (sections)
Week 4: Fanon, ‘Racism and Culture’; Césaire, ‘Discourse on Colonialism’
Week 5: Fanon, Decolonising Madness (sections from chapters 1-4); Foucault, History of Madness & Psychiatric Power (sections)
Week 7: Fanon, Decolonising Madness (sections from chapters 5-9); Foucault, On the Government of the Living & Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling (sections)
Week 8: Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (chapter 1); Benjamin, ‘Critique of Violence’
Week 9: Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (sections from chapters 2-3); Marx, The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850 & The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (sections)
Week 10: Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (sections from chapters 4-5 & conclusion); Sartre, ‘Preface to The Wretched of the Earth’

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand and write critically on some of the major figures of the twentieth-century French tradition in philosophy.
• The ability to expound and explain, in both oral and written form, difficult modern philosophical texts.
• Understand and interpret certain texts that are central to modern Continental philosophy, and relate them to on-going philosophical debates.
• Understand a significant portion of the modern Continental philosophical landscape.

Indicative reading list

Walter Benjamin, ‘Critique of Violence’ (1921); Mayotte Capécia, I Am a Martinican Woman (1948); Aimé Césaire, ‘Discourse on Colonialism’ (1950); Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952); Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961); Frantz Fanon, Toward the African Revolution (1964); Frantz Fanon, Decolonising Madness (2014); Michel Foucault, History of Madness (1961); Michel Foucault, Psychiatric Power (2006); Michel Foucault, On the Government of the Living (2014); Michel Foucault, Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling (2014); Germaine Guex, The Abandonment Neurosis (1950); G.W.F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807); Karl Marx, The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850 (1950); Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852); Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943); Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Anti-Semite and Jew’ (1946); Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Black Orpheus’ (1948); Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Preface to The Wretched of the Earth’ (1961)

Subject specific skills

Students will acquire an in-depth knowledge of the philosophy of Frantz Fanon, from Black Skin, White Masks (1952) to The Wretched of the Earth (1961).
Students will acquire a familiarity with and develop a critical assessment of key figures in post-Kantian European philosophy, such as Hegel, Marx, Sartre and Foucault.
Students will acquire an in-depth understanding of how race has been conceptualised in 20th century French philosophy.

Transferable skills

Communicate clearly and substantively at an advanced level both in speech and in writing on the main issues addressed in the module.
Provide a clear analysis of complex arguments and consistently compare the substance of different philosophical views.
Properly evaluate conflicting interpretations and critically engage with them.