Goblin commented on The Wretched of the Earth by Jean-Paul Sartre
So many people reference Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, so many people talk of its influence, that I had to read it. And it didn't disappoint. Fanon's analysis of colonial and post-colonial dynamics is so sharp, so enlightening. He repositioned the frames to show us a different view of the world. I'm still absorbing it, but I'm asking myself what it teaches us about our current struggles against oppression.
When reading, I skipped the 62 pages of introductory material that other people wrote and went directly to Fanon's first chapter. Then after finishing Fanon's text, I went back to read the bits at the beginning I had skipped.
Cornel West adds a relatively brief and insightful introduction to this edition, summarizing the importance of the work, putting it in context, and relating it to our present time. Exactly the sort of thing I'd expect from an introduction.
This …
So many people reference Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, so many people talk of its influence, that I had to read it. And it didn't disappoint. Fanon's analysis of colonial and post-colonial dynamics is so sharp, so enlightening. He repositioned the frames to show us a different view of the world. I'm still absorbing it, but I'm asking myself what it teaches us about our current struggles against oppression.
When reading, I skipped the 62 pages of introductory material that other people wrote and went directly to Fanon's first chapter. Then after finishing Fanon's text, I went back to read the bits at the beginning I had skipped.
Cornel West adds a relatively brief and insightful introduction to this edition, summarizing the importance of the work, putting it in context, and relating it to our present time. Exactly the sort of thing I'd expect from an introduction.
This is followed by a 34 page foreword by Homi K. Bhabha from 2004. It's well worth reading after you've finished the book. A great analysis of the work.
Finally, Jean-Paul Sartre's original preface from 1961 is a 20 page denouncement of Europe, riffing off of Fanon's work but really it just feels like Sartre doing his own thing. I can't quite explain why Sartre's preface feels less connected to Fanon's work than Bhabha's forward, but that's how I took it.
