FRANTZ FANON

208pp., illus., paperback, Reaktion Books, London, 2023

ISBN: 9781789148312

Biography of psychiatrist, philosopher, and revolutionary Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), the author of Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961).  

"In this carefully focused book, Williams achieves his aim of demythologizing many engrained understandings of Fanon. Drawing on a broad range of his subject’s writings, and locating these in complex biographical and historical contexts, he offers an invaluable account of Fanon’s contribution to anti-colonial and pan-African thought, and to a still urgent critique of the ideologies of race and identity." Charles Forsdick, Drapers Professor of French, University of Cambridge

"Elegantly succinct yet deeply informed, Williams’s authoritative account of Fanon’s life and thought is a superb book. With great clarity, Williams finely captures the ambiguities, paradoxes and opacities of Fanon’s work and personality, in a style that is not afraid to offer critical distance through parenthetic comments or to include speculative elements that make us think. Generous in his engagement with Fanonian scholarship, Williams never leans upon it and offers a clear voice and perspective that brings us through Fanon’s life and onwards into his after-lives. A pleasure to read, this book is an impressive and confident scholarly achievement." Patrick Crowley, University College Cork

James S. Williams is Professor of Modern French Literature and Film at Royal Holloway, University of London. His books include Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary African Cinema: The politics of beauty, winner of the 2020 R. Gapper Prize.