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Black Skin,White Masks
Identity, Identity formation and identity crises -this 'identity' though is a mere word for the general population collectively but its a much heavier word when an individual penetrates deeper within the self. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the word identity as having origins in Late 16th century (in the sense ‘quality of being identical’): from late Latin identitas, from Latin idem ‘same’.
Despite being 'same' in a total sense, as a noun it completely modifies the means of viewing the same word - 'the fact of being who or what a person or thing is'. Here the idea of unity or sameness is completely destroyed and the idea of uniqueness is constructed. From plural sense, the word 'identity' reaches to the destiny of singular.
Identity is an association of oneself, it's a form of recognition, it specifies an individual into certain criteria. If identity is a mark of closeness and similarity, at the same time it is a tool for pinpointing an individual. This political and partial sense is the study of postcolonialism. Because there is nothing universal about Postcoloniality or postcolonial studies. Frantz Fanon has made a revolutionary contribution in the field of postcolonial studies.
This blog tries to shed some light on Frantz Fanon's profoundly political text "Black Skin White Masks". This text brings to light how identity is produced and how the colonial tradition subjugates identity and how identity is productive violence. Fanon's directness in his writings and his engagement with the real political situation provides an insight into certain colonial and cultural activity.
As a psychiatrist, Fanon's analysis in Algeria with regard to the psychological effects of colonial domination and disempowerment is reflected in his work titled 'Black Skin, White Masks'. It is all about how a person with black skin put on the white mask and become some different identity which has in some or the other way promoted violence- the subjugation of skin identity.
Fanon is progressively looking at the text towards a new understanding of a man which is what we all are searching for a man. Fanon is looking towards all mankind but not in terms of racial aspects (black and white) but studies the in terms of the language which is operated in terms of binaries
It is about the anxieties of identity, the anxiety to produce a privileged identity, a hegemonic identity and a non-hegemonic identity, a non-dominant identity- there is a hierarchy in identities in colonial condition. This hegemonic identity is ambivalent. Fanon in his work is moving towards new humanism-
"Toward a new humanism. . . .
Understanding among men. . . .
Our coloured brothers. . . .
Mankind, I believe in you. . . .
Race prejudice. . . .
To understand and to love. . . ."
(Fanon, 1)
Fanon is progressively looking at the text towards a new understanding of a man which is what we all are searching for a man. Fanon is looking towards all mankind but not in terms of racial aspects (black and white) but studies the analyses of language which is operated in terms of binaries. His work is strongly influenced by the Foucauldian notion of power- KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
Mastery of language affords remarkable power. (Fanon, 9)
Fanon is concerned about the idea of race and Prejudice, he emphasized on the understanding of love and brotherhood, the nature of love between the human beings, Brotherhood, love and Desire and desire to unite- a Desire not to divide. Fanon is asking some fundamental questions to understand subjectivity to build a new sense and ability, to build a new value based discourse. Fanon in his work is trying to understand the basic concepts of one's own basic position as to understand one's own sensibility.
He asks what does a black man want?
[In any group of young men in the Antilles, the one who expresses himself well, who has mastered the language, is inordinately feared; keep an eye on that one, he is almost white. In France one says, “He talks like a book.” In Martinique, “He talks like a white man.”]
At first sight, Fanon is rather hard on the “black man.” He is supposed to be a good nigger who even lacks the advantage of being able to accomplish this descent into a real hell. But Fanon’s anger is directed not towards the “black man” but the proposition that he is required not only to be black but he must be black in relation to the white man. It is the internalization, or rather as Fanon calls it epidermalization, of this inferiority that concerns him.
The White man is sealed in his subject of whiteness and the black man is sealed within his subject of blackness. The likes and dislikes are all subjective and this subjectivity seals people and they are not open to the subjects to new ideas around them. These are the things that binds people on the narrow domestic walls.
Furthermore, everyone has their own nature and this nature is the innate subjectivity, the innate potential, the innate ability to view or dislike someone, the inability to conceptualize and to understand things or relate to the things. The discourse on marginalality and the discourse on negritude plays a vital role in the active likes and active dislikes of a person. these are socially understood discourse. Race is a biological phenomenon but race prejudice is a mental condition.
Fanon's work is largely based on the theory of self and the other - how other people speak, how others do, how others behave? This influences the manner by which the interactions of a negro man happens. It is a kind of mental makeup and language plays a vital role in its enabling capacities of mental conditioning.
"I believe that the fact of the juxtaposition of the white and black races has created a massive psychoexistential complex." (Fanon, 5)
Works Cited-
Fanon, Frantz. Black skin, white masks. Grove press, 2008.
Bergner, Gwen. "Who is that masked woman? or, the role of gender in Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks." Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (1995): 75-88.
Wallace, Jeff, and John Whale. Frantz Fanon’s' Black Skin, White Masks': New Interdisciplinary essays. Manchester University Press, 2017.
Thank you.
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