Overview
Psychiatrist, revolutionary, writer and philosopher, Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) played many roles during his brief life. Born on the island of Martinique, he died in the United States from cancer, following a meteoric career that took him to France, Algeria, Tunisia, and numerous places in between. Best known for Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Fanon drew upon psychology, European philosophy, and his own experience to articulate radical critiques of racism, colonialism, and nationalism that still vitally inform understandings of these issues. Yet Fanon remains controversial, given his advocacy of violent struggle, and, consequently, is often misunderstood. This biography - the most succinct and straightforward to date - demythologises Fanon by situating his life and ideas within the historical circumstances he encountered. Synthesising a range of secondary literature with readings of his work, it elevates enduring aspects of Fanon's legacy, while also countering interpretations of his writing that have granted uncritical omniscience to his views. Written with clarity and passion, Christopher J. Lee's account ultimately argues for the complexity of Frantz Fanon and his continued importance today.
Full Product Details
Author: Christopher J. Lee
Publisher: Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd
Imprint: Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd
Dimensions:
Width: 11.00cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 18.00cm
Weight: 0.500kg
ISBN: 9781431423088
ISBN 10: 1431423084
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 16 July 2016
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity. - Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. Christopher Lee has written a delightfully compelling introduction to the works, life and times of Frantz Fanon. Well-researched and thoroughly grounded, Lee's study admirably situates Fanon in the broadest historical context, while subtly explaining Fanon's powerful legacy today. This book taught me many things, revealing in intriguing ways the works of a black thinker from Martinique who so passionately embraced the Algerian Revolution, and so ardently desired to be embraced by it. - Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
“Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.” - Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth.“Christopher Lee has written a delightfully compelling introduction to the works, life and times of Frantz Fanon. Well-researched and thoroughly grounded, Lee’s study admirably situates Fanon in the broadest historical context, while subtly explaining Fanon’s powerful legacy today. This book taught me many things, revealing in intriguing ways the works of a black thinker from Martinique who so passionately embraced the Algerian Revolution, and so ardently desired to be embraced by it. - Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
Author Information
Christopher J. Lee is the author of Unreasonable Histories: Nativism, Multiracial Lives, and the Genealogical Imagination in British Africa and the editor of Making a World after Empire: The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives. He is based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
