Frantz Fanon and the Future of Cultural Politics: Finding Something Different

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This book focuses on a reading of Frantz Fanons work and life, asking how the work of a revolutionary writer such as Fanon might be best appropriated for contemporary political and cultural issues. Separate chapters introduce Fanons life and examine the question of Fanon as our contemporary; review the field of Fanon studies that has grown up around his work; bring Fanon into conversation with the critical contemporary figures Edward Said, Michel Foucault, Jamaica Kincaid, and Paul Gilroy; and turn to Fanons work to think through the contemporary popular uprisings that have come to be known as the Arab Spring. The book concludes by arguing that a reevaluation of Fanons life and work can provide us with a particular set of lessons about solidaritylessons that are crucial for the contemporary political struggles that face us today and that will continue to confront us in the future. Finding Something Different: Frantz Fanon and the Future of Cultural Politics is inspired by Fanons unsparing struggle against the depredations of racism and colonialism, and his lifelong commitment to finding something different.

Reviews

[This book] is a masterful intervention into the theorizing and contextualizing of the way in which Fanons work has been disseminated, appropriated and misappropriated by the Anglophone academy since English translations of his work started appearing posthumously in the late sixties. . . .Alessandrinis comprehensive book . . . proves how the thinker [Fanon] and the field are inextricably bound together. * Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy *
Frantz Fanon and the Future of Cultural Politics: Finding Something Different is an important new book. . . .[A] remarkable work of scholarship . . . [I]t is a deep consideration of the very project of postcolonial criticism and theory. * The Committee on Globalization and Social Change *
What are we to make of Frantz Fanon today Unlike those who would consign Fanons work to the dustbin of history, Anthony Alessandrini takes up this question in a series of provocative readings that show not only that Fanons work remains profoundly relevant from a theoretical standpoint, but also that in many ways we continue to live in the world that Fanon sought to both comprehend and transform. Fanons contemporary readers face both the theoretical task of reading Fanon for today and the practical task of putting his writings to work. Alessandrinis book accomplishes its theoretical task through a series of comparative readings that stage textual encounters between Fanons work and that of Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Jamaica Kincaid, and Paul Gilroy. . . .Anthony Alessandrinis book proves to be a good guide to Fanons writings and their contemporary relevance for scholars in a variety of fields, from Middle Eastern studies to Continental philosophy and contemporary theory. I have barely scratched the surface of Alessandrinis book here. His theoretical engagements with contemporary theorists alone make the book a worthy read, but what really makes this book distinctive is the emphasis on the continued practical import of Fanons writings as provocations for us today in our task of 'finding something different.' * SCTIW Review: Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World *
For those of us following Alessandrinis work over the years, this book is an important event. For those new to his work, it will be a lovely surprise. Alessandrini writes with confidence, clarity, and remarkable creativity, refusing in every way to be content with conventional formulations of Fanons work. His book takes stock of the current state of Fanon studies and then quickly moves to the real innovations of the book: complex conversations with subaltern studies, Edward Saids and Michel Foucaults work on humanism, Jamaica Kincaids literature and cultural politics, Paul Gilroys critiques of raciology, and the meaning of the African Spring. This is exactly the kind of refreshing, revitalizing engagement Fanon studies needs, engagement that both testifies to the enduring importance of his work and takes seriously developments after Fanon. It is no overstatement to say that Frantz Fanon and the Future of Cultural Politics represents a shift in Fanon studies and will seriously impact inquiry into the ongoing revolutionary, postcolonial moment. -- John E. Drabinski, Professor of Black Studies, Amherst College
This timely and beautifully written book is marked by thinking that is at once careful and ambitious, deep and wide-ranging, sophisticated and crystal clear. Inviting us to read Frantz Fanon non-piously as a situated thinker of his conjuncture and as our contemporary who may speak to current political predicaments, Alessandrini develops the most insightful re-consideration of Fanon that Ive read. By placing Fanon in dialogue with other key theorists and novelists, he also reflects deeply on the project and place of postcolonial criticism now. And by reading Fanon in relation to contemporary situations (notably Palestine, South Africa, and the Arab Spring), he addresses some of the most pressing and vexing political challenges today regarding the relation between situated singularities and translocal solidarities. His close readings, keen analyses, and searching questions are guided throughout by Fanons lifelong demand for something different, an emergent humanism that would not only overcome colonial racism and imperialism but could ground true liberation in and for a future that could not yet be known. -- Gary Wilder, City University of New York Graduate Center
Fearless yet fair-minded, Alessandrini sweeps away decades of piety and restores to us a Fanon who has no need of his legends. -- Bruce Robbins, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University

Author Bio

Anthony C. Alessandrini is associate professor of English at Kingsborough Community College and the Master of Arts program in Middle Eastern Studies at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York.