On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon

This paper considers the implications of Hannah Arendt's criticisms of Frantz Fanon and the theories of violence and politics associated with his influence for our understanding of the relationship between those two phenomena. Fanon argues that violence is a means necessary to political action,...

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Main Authors: Frazer, E, Hutchings, K
Format: Journal article
Published: Palgrave Macmillan 2008
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author Frazer, E
Hutchings, K
author_facet Frazer, E
Hutchings, K
author_sort Frazer, E
collection OXFORD
description This paper considers the implications of Hannah Arendt's criticisms of Frantz Fanon and the theories of violence and politics associated with his influence for our understanding of the relationship between those two phenomena. Fanon argues that violence is a means necessary to political action, and also is an organic force or energy. Arendt argues that violence is inherently unpredictable, which means that end reasoning is in any case anti-political, and that it is a profound error to naturalize violence. We evaluate their respective arguments concluding that in her well-founded rejection of the naturalization of violence, Arendt's understanding of the embodied nature of violence is less insightful than Fanon's.
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spelling oxford-uuid:a8b52cbe-15f4-42d3-a680-794bf77c83792022-03-27T03:03:27ZOn politics and violence: Arendt contra FanonJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a8b52cbe-15f4-42d3-a680-794bf77c8379Social Sciences Division - DaisyPalgrave Macmillan2008Frazer, EHutchings, KThis paper considers the implications of Hannah Arendt's criticisms of Frantz Fanon and the theories of violence and politics associated with his influence for our understanding of the relationship between those two phenomena. Fanon argues that violence is a means necessary to political action, and also is an organic force or energy. Arendt argues that violence is inherently unpredictable, which means that end reasoning is in any case anti-political, and that it is a profound error to naturalize violence. We evaluate their respective arguments concluding that in her well-founded rejection of the naturalization of violence, Arendt's understanding of the embodied nature of violence is less insightful than Fanon's.
spellingShingle Frazer, E
Hutchings, K
On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon
title On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon
title_full On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon
title_fullStr On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon
title_full_unstemmed On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon
title_short On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon
title_sort on politics and violence arendt contra fanon
work_keys_str_mv AT frazere onpoliticsandviolencearendtcontrafanon
AT hutchingsk onpoliticsandviolencearendtcontrafanon