This presentation is based on the text that is 'Wretched of the Earth' by Fanon. and it is about the theory of Violence.

1. FANON’S
THEORY OF
VIOLENCE
-Presented by Emisha Ravani

2. Sem 3 (M.A.)
Roll no. 7
Enrollment no. 4069206420210031
Paper code : 22408
Paper no. & paper name : Paper 203, The
Postcolonial Studies
Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi, Department of
English,
MKBU
emisharavani3459@gmail.com

3. • The main elements of Fanon’s thoughts are :
1.First, his stress on black consciousness and
his revolt against racist colonialism.
2.Secondly, his belief in and concern for creating
a humanism.
3.Thirdly, the incorporation of existentialist and
Marxist influences
4.Fourthly, the discovery of peasantry agents of
revolution in the third world
5.Finally, his glorification of violence

4. Main three aspects of the issue under consideration :
- It discuses the meaning of violence in Fanon’s
thought
-It analysis the importance Fanon attaches to
violence in the process of revolution
-It subjects his theory of violence to critical scrutiny

5. Meaning of violence :
Fanon writes (In the sense of physical injury),
“Their first encounter was worked by violence and their
existence that is to say the exploitation of the native by the
settler was carried on by dint of a great array of bayonets and
cannon.”
In the sense of Force :
The colonial regime in term of violence. He says, “ It is
obvious here that agents of government speck the language
of pure force.”
As a matter of fact, Fanon has used the term violence and
force interchangeably. He writes, The hecatombs are an
indication that between oppressor and oppressed everything
can be solved by forces.”

6. Explaining the real nature of violence, Fanon says, “We
have seen that it is the institution of the colonized
masses that their liberation must, and can only be
achieved by force.”
“The representatives of the colonial countries were
aggressive and violent, and carried things to extreme.”
His violence means anything except non-violence. His
concept of violence “Encompasses almost the entire
range of political pressure.”
Including physical or psychological injury, aggression,
military, coercion, power, or force.

7. Importance of violence :
First, Fanon’s maintains that it is only through violence that man
creates himself.
Hegel : Man is the product of his thought
Marx : Man is the product of labour
Fanon : Man products himself though himself
According to Sartre : Fanon makes it clear that “ Irrepressible
violence is neither sound and fury, nor the resurrection of savage
instincts, nor even the effect of resentment : It is man re-creating
himself.
The native cures himself of colonial neurosis by thrusting out the
settler through force of arms. When his rage boils over, he
rediscovers his lost innocence and he comes to know himself in that
he himself creates his self.”

8. Second, Violence as a catharsis (Purificatory role of
violence)
Third, Acts as a unifying force for the native people
Fourth, Fanon maintains that violence pays not only
during the colonial struggle for independence, but also
in the second phase of decolonization.
Fifth, “Violence alone, violence committed by the
people, violence organized and educated by its leaders,
makes it possible for the masses to understand social
truths and gives the key to them . Without the struggle
there is nothing but a fancy-dress parade and the blare
of the trumpets.”- Fanon
Political consciousness awake

9. Criticized views :
- Fanon mistaken when he make violence as a cause for
colonial alienation. Because violence was from the both sides
that is colonizer and colonized.
- Violence may degenerate into ‘Political Masochism’.
- A fundamental objection may be raised against Fanon’s view
that violence frees the individual from his fear and inferiority
complexes. Fanon’s own psychiatric case histories prove
beyond doubt that the act of killing is dehumanizing and that it
leads to neurosis and distortion of personality.
- Sartre presents anti-Semitism as a universal phenomenon and
approaches it from an analytical rather than historical perspective

10. Can violence be an addiction?
“Our lab has really shown that that’s true — negative emotions are there,”
Chester said. “But positive emotions actually also play a pretty big role in
aggressive behavior as well. So aggression can feel good. And that
pleasure — and the associated, what we call hedonic reward — is a really
potent motivating force.”
“So aggression isn’t just about ‘I’m angry and I want to hit someone,’”
Chester said. “It’s also about how it feels good sometimes to get revenge
on someone who has wronged you or who you perceive as having
wronged you.”
“It follows this trajectory where negative and positive emotion fit together,”
he said. “So, ‘I feel bad, I don’t want to feel bad, so I’m looking for things
that make me feel good.’ Well, we’ve always known that drugs and risky
behavior are in that group. We’re saying that aggression belongs in that
group too. And that people seek it out when they’re feeling bad. And that
they use it like a tool to help themselves regulate their mood state. And
when they do that, it activates these addiction circuits in the brain and it
reinforces this behavior.”

11. “What [Naltrexone] basically does is it blocks
pleasure,” he said. “It keeps you from feeling good
from things that would normally make you feel good.
It’s used commonly to treat alcohol dependence.
These individuals, when they want to have a drink,
they get a drink and they feel good. If you have a
Naltrexone implant, which they replace every six
weeks or so, you have a drink, you’re waiting for the
buzz to kick in, you might get a little but you’re not
really getting the same bump that you used to.
Because this drug blocks the typical pleasure
enhancing neurotransmitters and neurochemicals
from doing their job. It stands in their way.”

12. Work citation :
JHA, B. K. “FANON’S THEORY OF VIOLENCE: A CRITIQUE.” The Indian Journal of Political
Science, vol. 49, no. 3, 1988, pp. 359–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41855881.
McNeill, Brian. “What Is the Psychology behind Violence and Aggression? A New VCU Lab
Aims to Find Out.” VCU News,
https://news.vcu.edu/article/what_is_the_psychology_behind_violence_and_aggression_a_ne
w_vcu.
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1946, Réflexions sur la question juive, Paris: Editions Morihien. Translated
as Anti-Semite and Jew, George J. Becker (trans.), New York: Schocken, 1948.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-
bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=frantz-fanon.

13. Thank you