Black Skin, White Masks

Infobox Book
name = Black Skin, White Masks
title_orig = Peau noire, masques blancs
translator = Charles L. Markmann


image_caption =
author = Frantz Fanon
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = France
language = French
series = Collections Esprit. La condition humaine
subject = Black race.
Racial discrimination.
Racism.
Blacks--Social conditions.
publisher = Paris, Éditions du Seuil
release_date = 1952
english_release_date = 1967
media_type =
pages = 222
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Black Skin, White Masks" is a 1952 book written by Frantz Fanon originally published in French as "Peau noire, masques blancs".

In this study, Fanon uses psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical theory to explain the feelings of dependency and inadequacy that Black people experience in a White world. He speaks of the divided self-perception of the Black Subject who has lost his native cultural originality and embraced the culture of the mother country. As a result of the inferiority complex engendered in the mind of the Black Subject, he will try to appropriate and imitate the cultural code of the colonizer. The behaviour, Fanon argues, is even more evident in upwardly mobile and educated Black people who can afford to acquire the trappings of White culture. Originally formulated to combat the oppression of black people, Fanon's insights are still influential today, being utilized by various groups such as the Palestinians, the Tamils, African Americans and others, and used in their struggle for cultural and political autonomy. Fanon presents both historical interpretation and underlying social indictment.

Analysis

Gender and sexuality

Fanon follows Sigmund Freud in examining race relations through a male-normative and hetero-normative lens. Gwen Bergner writes that with the book's opening question, "What does the black man want?", Fanon "wrests the psychoanalytic territory of otherness from femininity".Cite journal| issn = 00308129| volume = 110| issue = 1| pages = 76| last = Bergner| first = Gwen| title = Who Is That Masked Woman? Or, the Role of Gender in Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks| journal = PMLA| accessdate = 2008-05-24| date = 1995-01| url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/463196]

Reception

"Black Skin, White Masks" remained obscure for decades after its initial publication. Since the 1980s, it has become well-known as an anti-colonial and anti-racist work in English-speaking countries. However, it remains a "relatively minor work" in francophone nations, despite its explicit connection with those countries.Cite book| publisher = Manchester University Press| pages = 1| last = Silverman| first = Maxim| coauthors = Max Silverman| title = Frantz Fanon's 'Black Skin, White Masks': New Interdisciplinary Essays| date = 2006] Modern discussions among theorists of nationalism, anti-colonialism, and liberation have largely focused on Fanon's later, more revolutionary works, rather than the psychoanalytic explanation of colonial relations. [Bergner 1995, 75-76]

References

External links

* [http://www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/FanonBW.html Quotes] in English