Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence

The influence of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Critique de la raison dialectique on Frantz Fanon’s Les Damnés de la terre can be seen in Fanon’s direct engagement with Sartre’s text as well as in the vocabulary that he adopts when discussing key ideas, particularly in the now infamous first chapter discussion...

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Main Author: Batchelor, Kathryn
Format: Article
Published: Edinburgh University Press 2015
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36351/
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author Batchelor, Kathryn
author_facet Batchelor, Kathryn
author_sort Batchelor, Kathryn
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The influence of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Critique de la raison dialectique on Frantz Fanon’s Les Damnés de la terre can be seen in Fanon’s direct engagement with Sartre’s text as well as in the vocabulary that he adopts when discussing key ideas, particularly in the now infamous first chapter discussion of violence. In Constance Farrington’s English translation of Les Damnés, however, philosophical terms are replaced with everyday ones, and the links between Les Damnés and the Critique are obscured. In this paper I seek not only to highlight this de-philosophizing approach through a range of examples, but also to explore the ways in which these changes, combined with a number of significant mistranslations, enact a shift around Fanon’s conceptualization of violence, with far-reaching implications for the take-up of Les Damnés de la terre around the world.
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spelling nottingham-363512020-05-04T17:02:16Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36351/ Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence Batchelor, Kathryn The influence of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Critique de la raison dialectique on Frantz Fanon’s Les Damnés de la terre can be seen in Fanon’s direct engagement with Sartre’s text as well as in the vocabulary that he adopts when discussing key ideas, particularly in the now infamous first chapter discussion of violence. In Constance Farrington’s English translation of Les Damnés, however, philosophical terms are replaced with everyday ones, and the links between Les Damnés and the Critique are obscured. In this paper I seek not only to highlight this de-philosophizing approach through a range of examples, but also to explore the ways in which these changes, combined with a number of significant mistranslations, enact a shift around Fanon’s conceptualization of violence, with far-reaching implications for the take-up of Les Damnés de la terre around the world. Edinburgh University Press 2015-02-20 Article PeerReviewed Batchelor, Kathryn (2015) Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence. Nottingham French Studies, 54 (1). pp. 7-22. ISSN 0029-4586 Frantz Fanon; Les Damnés de la terre; The Wretched of the Earth; translation; Jean-Paul Sartre; Critique de la raison dialectique; violence; Constance Farrington http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/nfs.2015.0103 doi:10.3366/nfs.2015.0103 doi:10.3366/nfs.2015.0103
spellingShingle Frantz Fanon; Les Damnés de la terre; The Wretched of the Earth; translation; Jean-Paul Sartre; Critique de la raison dialectique; violence; Constance Farrington
Batchelor, Kathryn
Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
title Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
title_full Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
title_fullStr Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
title_full_unstemmed Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
title_short Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
title_sort fanon's les damnés de la terre : translation, de-philosophization and the intensification of violence
topic Frantz Fanon; Les Damnés de la terre; The Wretched of the Earth; translation; Jean-Paul Sartre; Critique de la raison dialectique; violence; Constance Farrington
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36351/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36351/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36351/