Postcolonialial views in The Wretched of The Earth

Postcolonialism views in "The Wretched of The Earth"

Name: 

Divya Parmar 

 Paper no:

203

Roll no:

5

Enrollment no:

4069206420210024

Email id:

divyaparmar07012@gmail.com

Batch:

2021-2023 (sem 3)

Submitted to: 

S. B. Gardi Department of English.

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University 

Introduction:

Wretched of the Earth (1961) is a nonfiction book by Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and philosopher. Together with such texts as Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988), and Homi Bhabha’s The Location of Culture (1994), The Wretched of the Earth is a founding text of modern postcolonial studies. It is also Frantz Fanon’s most internationally acclaimed book, translated into more than 25 languages.

Frantz Fanon : 

Frantz Fanon, in full Frantz Omar Fanon, (born July 20, 1925, Fort-de-France, Martinique—died December 6, 1961, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.), West Indian psychoanalyst and social philosopher known for his theory that some neuroses are socially generated and for his writings on behalf of the national liberation of colonial peoples. His critiques influenced subsequent generations of thinkers and activists. 

After attending schools in Martinique, Fanon served in the Free French Army during World War II and afterward attended school in France, completing his studies in medicine and psychiatry at the University of Lyon. In 1953–56 he served as head of the psychiatry department of Blida-Joinville Hospital in Algeria, which was then part of France. While treating Algerians and French soldiers, Fanon began to observe the effects of colonial violence on the human psyche.

He began working with the Algerian liberation movement, the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale; FLN), and in 1956 became an editor of its newspaper, El Moudjahid, published in Tunis. In 1960 he was appointed ambassador to Ghana by Algeria’s FLN-led provisional government. That same year Fanon was diagnosed with leukemia. In 1961 he received treatment for the disease in the United States, where he later died. 

About Novel:

The wretched of the earth Written at the height of the Algerian War of Independence, Wretched of the Earth presents an analytical exploration of the inner workings and various stages of the decolonization process, as well as an impassioned apology for the need for violence in the anticolonial struggle. The book also marks a turn in Fanon’s thinking from his earlier preoccupation with the problems of Blackness and Black oppression to a wider, global take on the struggle between Western countries and their colonies. Inspired by Marxist and Leninist ideas, Fanon adapts the notions of class struggle and social justice to the racialized colonial context. His analysis of the problems facing colonized societies culminates in the total rejection of European values through a cathartic violent struggle against the oppressors. 

The book’s title is taken from Eugène Pottier’s 1871 “Internationale,” the song considered the anthem of left-wing parties worldwide and used as the official national anthem of the Soviet Union until 1944. The full phrase in English goes “Arise ye wretched of the earth / For justice thunders condemnation / A better world’s in birth!”

The text comprises five main sections, a Conclusion, and a Preface by Jean-Paul Sartre that outlines why Fanon’s book is a seminal work and why it should be read by European, especially French, audiences. Additionally, Sartre uses The Wretched of the Earth to highlight his own support for national self-determination and dissatisfaction with the French Left, which he considers ineffective and hypocritical. 

The first part, “Concerning Violence,” defines the notions of colonization and decolonization and delves into why violence seems to be an inescapable facet of the decolonization process. The author examines the colonial logic that divides settlers from natives and necessitates the dehumanization of the latter to facilitate their exploitation. Consequently, according to him, decolonization involves reversing the existing status quo, which, by its nature, is a violent and chaotic process.

The second part, “Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness,” presents a well-rounded description of the various segments of colonial society and how they interact. Additionally, Fanon contrasts the situation in a place, such as Algeria, to the one described by Friedrich Engels in 19th-century England. Unlike the Western proletariat, which is the most organized and politically aware social class, urban wage workers in colonial countries are in a relatively privileged position. In contrast, it is the peasants who are the most dispossessed and dream of taking back their land from the settlers. However, Fanon points out that in many places, traditional clan leaders, oracles, and medicine men who want to safeguard their influence in the community prefer to work with the colonial powers rather than local city dwellers who bring to the village such progressive ideas as atheism, modern medicine, and universal education. As a result, the author appeals to nationalist parties to actively educate and include the peasant population in the liberation struggle rather than ignore and distrust farmers, as is usually the case. 

The third part, “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness,” cautions readers against the dangers of nationalism when left unchecked. Fanon brings in examples from other African countries, such as the Ivory Coast, where locals discriminate against other African minorities, imitating the native bourgeoisie’s chauvinistic attitudes toward settlers. Ultimately, those who were oppressed by the Europeans become oppressors in turn.

The fourth part, “On National Culture,” examines why colonized peoples seem to lack a national culture. Fanon asserts that the dehumanization inherent in colonization also causes the dismissal or suppression of local culture. This part also contains a subsection that examines how colonialism obliterates local culture and asserts that decolonization is thus the ultimate form of cultural expression.

The last part, “Colonial War and Mental Disorders,” presents real examples of mental illness, witnessed by Fanon during his residency in Algeria. These range from psychological problems, such as impotence in men whose wives were raped or sociopathic tendencies in adolescents, to the long-term physical results of torture. The author concludes this section by debunking the myth, propagated by the French, that Algerians are born violent and mentally deficient. He positions colonization not only as a social-cultural-political problem but also as a psychological malady afflicting both oppressors and oppressed.

In the Conclusion Fanon appeals to his readers to disregard the West, both Europe and the United States, as a role model since its successes were achieved at a high human price. Great ideas and scientific discoveries do not balance out the atrocities perpetrated by white colonizers in the name of European values. The author concludes that the third world must find its own unique way forward. 

What is Postcolonial Literature: 

"Postcolonialism... involves a studied engagement with the experience of colonialism and its past and present effects" 

A good way to start any definition of postcolonial literature is to think about the origins of the term postcolonialism and how it has been used in literary criticism, from roughly the late 1980s to present times. The term is sometimes written with a hyphen, sometimes left unhyphenated, with the two forms used to designate the same areas of interest by different critics. The hyphenated version was first used by political scientists and economists to denote the period after colonialism, but from about the late seventies it was turned into a more wide-ranging culturalist analysis in the hands of literary critics and others.

The unhyphenated version is conventionally used to distinguish it from the earlier iteration that referred only to specific time period and to indicate a tendency toward literary criticism and the analysis of various discourses at the intersection of race, gender and diaspora, among others. 

A possible working definition for postcolonialism is that it involves a studied engagement with the experience of colonialism and its past and present effects, both at the local level of ex-colonial societies and at the level of more general global developments thought to be the after-effects of empire. Postcolonialism often also involves the discussion of experiences such as slavery, migration, suppression and resistance, difference, race, gender and place as well as responses to the discourses of imperial Europe such as history, philosophy, anthropology and linguistics. The term is as much about conditions under imperialism and colonialism proper, as about conditions coming after the historical end of colonialism.  

 A growing concern among postcolonial critics has also been with racial minorities in the west, embracing Native and African Americans in the US, British Asians and African Caribbeans in the UK and Aborigines in Australia and Canada, among others. Because of these features, postcolonialism allows for a wide range of applications, designating a constant interplay and slippage between the sense of a historical transition, a socio-cultural location and an epochal configuration. Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) is considered as pivotal in the shaping of postcolonial studies. In Orientalism, Said argued for seeing a direct correlation between the knowledges that oriental scholars produced and how these were redeployed in the constitution of colonial rule. 

Features of the postcolonial literature: 

The term post-colonialism is a helpful analytical term that tries to review the aftermath of colonisation as well as the struggle for independence. The effects of colonialism comprise social and political changes.

Critic aspect

Cross-cultural aspect

History aspect

Patriotic aspect

Gender aspect

Political aspect

Landscape aspect

Review aspect

Cultural integration aspect 

Postcolonial views in novel: 

The first chapter, "Post-colonialism: The Theory", is meant to explore the post-colonial theory and to present a precise understanding to its definition. Moreover, it sheds the light on the intersection between the post-colonial theory and the other contemporary critical theories. It begins by defining the word 'colonialism' and shows its relationship to literature. Then it concentrates on the origins of the term 'post-colonialism' from spatial and temporary dimensions. The term involves various connotations and covers a very wide range of debates. It is used to mean resisting any dominant discourse. Post-colonial theory intersects with other critical theories such as, Feminism, Postmodernism, and cultural studies. This chapter spotlights the major issues of the post-colonial theory in order to prove that resistance is a central concept in the whole theory.  

The second chapter, "Strategies of Resistance in Post-colonial Theory", attempts to show how the post-colonial theory resists the colonial discourse. It is divided into four sections. The fist section in this chapter concentrates on the discovery of the hegemonic imperial discourse. This section handles the colonial discourse studies of which the most famous is Said's Orientalism. This section shows how the colonialist texts see the colonized in terms based on the Manichean allegory; portraying the world as divided into two unequal opposites. If the European is shown as ordered, rational, and good, then the colonized world is portrayed as disordered, irrational, and evil. This section discusses how the colonial discourse is used to control the colonized people, and how it contributes to establish the binary relationships, Self/Other, Central/Marginal, and Colonizer/Colonized. 

 

The second section examines one of the subversive strategies of resistance in the post-colonial theory, which is mimicry. This strategy is raised by some post-colonial critics such as Homi Bhabha to use the cracks that exist in the colonial discourse itself to subvert it. It supposes that the colonial discourse is not completely powerful. The third section deals with the counter-discourse raised by post-colonial writers to oppose the colonial discourse. It concentrates on the efforts made by post-colonial intellectuals to re-write the colonialists canonical texts such as Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Conrad's Heart of Darkness from a post-colonial perspective to dismantle their basic colonial assumptions. It shows also, how the post-colonial critics oppose the universality of the colonial traditions confirming their cultural difference. The fourth section is devoted to the concept of nationalism and its emergence in the colonized countries. It is the motive that helps the colonized people's attempt to resist the colonial authority. It shows how culture is at the service of the nation.  

      The third chapter, "Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth: A Post-colonial Text", is mainly devoted to approaching Frantz Fanon's influential text, The Wretched of the Earth, to explain how it is considered as an apparent representative of the post-colonial texts. This chapter concentrates on Fanon's consideration of the role of violence as an inevitable means of resistance in the colonial context. For him the colonized people's use of violence is a natural reaction to the colonizer's violence, and it is the most effective strategy of resistance that compels the colonial authority to negotiate and give the chance to the colonized to speak. This chapter highlights Fanon's call for organizing and teaching the spontaneous sectors of the resisting people to bring the people's struggle into success. Moreover, he warns the Third World peoples from the danger represented in the bourgeoisie. Due to him, this class is politically vacant and its struggle stops when given some privileges from the colonizers. He shows the importance of educating the 'spontaneous' sectors of the people politically. This chapter concentrates on Fanon's concept of nationalism and discusses his warning of the pitfalls of the concept. In addition, it sheds the light on the interconnectedness between the national culture and the struggle for liberation. 

In the conclusion, there is a review and an assessment of the post- colonial theory and the concept of resistance in its boundaries. Moreover, there is an assessment of Frantz Fanon's text "The Wretched of the Earth". Eventually, the study maintains that the post-colonial theory could be a reading strategy by which the Third World's reader can discover how the Western literary texts are not detached from their colonialist projects. Also it suggests that it is important to read the West open-mindedly. Post-colonial theory is to represent a call for correcting the distorted image of the Third World's peoples, specially the Arabs, in the eyes of the West. 

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Work Citation: 

Ibrahim, Abdelnaim. “(PDF) Postcolonialism-A Theory of Resistance with a Special Reference ...” Researchgate, Aug. 2006, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329983764_Postcolonialism-A_Theory_of_Resistance_with_a_Special_Reference_to_Fanon's_Te_Wretched_of_the_Earth.

“Frantz Fanon.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frantz-Fanon.

“What Is Postcolonial Literature?” The British Academy, https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/what-is-postcolonial-literature/.

“Features of Post-Colonial Literature: Free Essay Example.” StudyCorgi.com, 10 Jan. 2022, https://studycorgi.com/features-of-post-colonial-literature/.