POL484H1S L0101

Graduate Course Code: POL2026H1S L0101

Topics in Political Thought I

The Political Thought of Frantz Fanon

Themes

Martinican psychiatrist, philosopher, and revolutionary Frantz Fanon was among the leading critical theorists and Africana thinkers of the twentieth century. Fanon ushered in the decolonial turn in critical theory, a move calling on those both within and outside of Europe to challenge the coloniality of the age and to forge a new vision of politics in the postcolonial period. This course is an advanced seminar devoted to a comprehensive examination of Fanon’s political thought. We will begin with an analysis of primary texts by Fanon and end by considering how Fanon has been interpreted by his contemporaries as well as activists and critical theorists writing today.

Texts

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks; Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism; Frantz Fanon, Toward the African Revolution; Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth; selection from Frantz Fanon, Alienation and Freedom; Hannah Arendt, On Violence; Glen Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks Nathalie Etoke, Melancholia Africana; Achille Mbembe, On the Postcolony; Christina Sharpe, In the Wake; selection from Jean-Paul Sartre, Antisemite and Jew; selection from Aimé Césaire, And the Dogs Were Silent; selection from Gavin Arnall, Subterranean Fanon; selection from Jane Gordon, Creolizing Political Theory; selection from Lewis Gordon, Fear of Black Consciousness; selection from Nigel Gibson, Fanon Today. Additional articles and book chapters TBA.

Format and Requirements

attendance; participation (includes (a) one weekly reading e-post to course site, (b) contributions to class discourses, and (c) leading one class discussion on the session’s reading); two essays; and a final research paper.