Lit Theory - Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth

Frantz Fanon

1.     The Wretched of the Earth

a.     Colonialism tends to disrupt the cultural life of the conquered people.

                                               i.     Through negation of national reality,

                                             ii.     Installation of new laws,

                                            iii.     Banishment of natives, and

                                            iv.     Systematic enslavement.

b.     Colonialism tends to be:

                                               i.     Quick in its influence,

                                             ii.     And tries to convince the population of their inferiority.

c.     The masses tend to retain their culture. “intellectuals” try to conform to the new culture.

d.     The existing culture tends to become a secret culture and is viewed as refusal to submit.

e.     Poverty, oppression, and culture become the same thing.

f.      Literacy of combat: after time the natives will start producing literature that is nationalistic.

g.     Storytellers update their stories and in turn become national trends.  The stories happen someplace else and at another time, but are reflective of current events.

h.     Literature and storytelling reignite the population’s imagination.

i.      This becomes the awaking of national conscious.

j.      Non-traditional changes in art occur.

k.     It is the ruling class that wants to hang onto the old notions of culture.  The change in culture is new and outside their regular view.

l.      The intellectual should be focused on building up the nation.  If he is in tune he will pick up universal themes from the population.

Works Cited

“A Private Little War.” Star Trek. CBS Television Distribution. August 23, 1968. Television

Fanon, Frantz.  The Wretched of the Earth.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010. 1437-1446. Print.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  1861-1888. Print.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason.  The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  2110-2126. Print.