ENGL 74.06 Frantz Fanon: Colonial War and Mental Disorders

This course is an introduction to postcolonial theory through an exploration of the writings of Frantz Fanon, a Martiniquan psychiatrist and anticolonial thinker, who wrote extensively on the political and psychical impact of colonization on both the colonizers and the colonized. In the course, we will read Fanon’s early essays on black subjectivity in Black Skin, White Masks; his more overtly political writings on violence and revolution in Wretched of the Earth; and, his clinical writings on madness, institutionalization, and psychotherapy, collected in the newly translated Alienation and Freedom. Throughout the course of the term, we will pay close attention to questions of racial and sexual difference in Fanon’s work as well as the way his writing remains critical for postcolonial political thought.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:NW

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Senior Seminar: Course Group IV