Comparing Rue cases negres and Black skin white masks
Drawing on a range of approaches addressed in the module, and in particular the writings of Fanon, discuss issues of difference and identity as articulated in either Palcy's Rue Cases Negres or Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers.'It was hate; I was hated, despised, detested, not by the neighbor across the street or my cousin on my mother's side, but by an entire race. I was up against something unreasoned'. (Fanon 1986: 118). Whilst looking at issues of difference, identity, authenticity and language I will turn to Frantz Fanon's critical work, Black skin White Masks (BSWM) and Eugene Palcy's movie Rue Cases Negres to try and explain the effects of racism and colonization reflected in the black subject's consciousness.Frantz Fanon, an outstanding contributor to post-colonial studies, observes and criticizes the mistreatment of black people in Martinique and Algeria, countries ruled at that time by French colonizers. BSWM represents Fanon's personal experience of a young black child educated to think like a white person in a white world. Following his encounters with French racism, Fanon felt the need to resist.In Black Skin White Masks, Fanon defines the colonial relationship as the psychological non-recognition of the subjec
He explores the class collision and questions of cultural hegemony in the creation and maintenance of a new country's national consciousness. Jose and Fanon both were able to overcome the white dominant race and speak out their thoughts as a result of possessing the necessary tools to do that. He only appeared whilst talking to Jose and he wanted Jose to actively participate in the change of a colonised society in a hegemonic structure to a decolonised society imposed by the white culture. 'For not only must the black man be black, he must be black in relation to the white man' (Fanon 1986: 110). This gives Jose a better understanding of his culture and how to stand up for himself. To conclude, Black Skin, White Masks confronts the reader with the roles that race, gender and class have played in shaping colonial and postcolonial relations around the world. He turns to the dominant white culture and argues that even though the colonized are usually more numerous than the dominant, the latter create the inferiority of the natives. The concept of the westernisation of the world in colonial times is perceived in the movie in the scene where in Leopold's house, a phonograph is playing music from France and all of his house is very well furnished, contrasting with Jose's dirty shack. Jose goes on asking her: 'Why do you condemn all blacks?' She then argues that black people are 'already black' so why should they then do even worst things, like steeling, consequently assimilating black with evil. Jose and Fanon may be seen as experiencing what Paul Gilroy names as Flows. Whilst turning to Jose's identity, it might have been seen as shaped by the environment that surrounds him. Fanon's view on the white culture imposing itself on the black subject can be seen mainly in one of the scenes at the sugar can fields. Jose, the main character of Rue Cases Negres, grew up in a French colonized country as well and faced very similar conditions to those experienced by Frantz Fanon.
Common topics in this essay:
Amantine Jose's,
Jose Fanon,
Masks Fanon,
According Fanon,
Furthermore Medouze,
Whilst Jose's,
Medouze Jose,
Rue Negres,
Battle Algiers,
Martinique Algeria,
white culture,
skin white masks,
black skin white,
white masks,
skin white,
rue negres,
black skin,
fanon 1986,
black subject,
white dominant,
black people,
jose fanon,
issues difference identity,
fanon 1986 110,
association blackness evil,
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Acceptance Essays
