FRANTZ FANON QUESTIONS FOR E256 LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM
CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, FALL 2012

EMAIL | SYLLABUS | POLICIES | QUESTIONS | PRESENTATIONS | JOURNALS | PAPER | FINAL

Assigned: Frantz Fanon. From The Wretched of the Earth: “On National Culture” (1440-46 in Leitch, Vincent B. and William E. Cain, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-93292-8).

From The Wretched of the Earth

From “On National Culture: Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom”

1. On 1440-41, how, according to Fanon, does colonial domination disrupt national culture, and on what unproductive paths does such disruption lead colonized artists and intellectuals?

2. On 1441-43, what does Fanon suggest drives native people more and more to “organized revolt” (1441), and what effects do the tensions that surface have upon the natives’ culture? How do such tensions affect the various kinds of artistic production and artisanship? How do they affect literary genres?

3. On 1444, what does Fanon suggest becomes necessary as the national consciousness of a colonized people matures? Why is it a mistake to “give new values to native culture within the framework of colonial domination”? What startling strategy should be pursued instead, and why?

4. On 1444-46, how does Fanon develop his remarks about the relationship between the struggle for national sovereignty and a people’s culture? Moreover, how are intense nationalist struggle and the cultural production associated with it at the same time internationalist and universalizing?