Fanon and his critics: the new battle of Algiers

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Periodical article

Title:	Fanon and his critics: the new battle of Algiers
Author:	Ralston, Richard David
Year:	1976
Periodical:	Cultures et développement
Volume:	8
Issue:	3
Pages:	463-493
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Africa Algeria
Subjects:	national liberation movements literature French language
About person:	Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)
Abstract:	Unlike the firestorm of controversy which subsequently enveloped Frantz Fanon's memory, his death, the 6th of December, 1961, in a Washington D.C. hospital, went largely unremarked outside the Algerian-Tunisian theaters of combat. Today the name Fanon is a lightning rod for impassioned critics, defenders and interpreters. The great debate over Fanon has divided into three arenas, a division followed in this paper. His critics are easily divisible into 1) a camp containing those who measure Fanon for his tactical usefulness for the black revolution in the United States; 2) a camp of, for the most part, Western intellectuals and Cold Warriors who sift through Fanon's intellectual ashes for contributions or subtractions within Western intellectual history; 3) a camp of mostly Algerian critics who contest his usefulness to contemporary Algerian politics. Notes.