homas Paine and Frantz Fanon : their vision of man and their theort of revolution

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Date

2017

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Universite Mouloud Mammeri

Abstract

The aim of this studyis to compare and contrast the works of two influential thinkers, Thomas Paine and Frantz Fanon from a dialogic and eclectic perspective. Though separated by time and space, the comparison of their works shows that their thoughts, feelings, and action within the structures of power of their social worlds and their times converge in many aspects. The reached findings can be summarized in what follows: first, the examination of the political, philosophical, social, and cultural significance of their worksdemonstrates how each of them performed a good deal about ethics and the moral life by concerning themselves with the social consequences of morality and the moral quality of social life. Second, the analysis of Paine’s and Fanon’s dedication to revolutionary action illustrates the way they serve the cause of man. As an ardent supporter of the American and French Revolutions, Paine re-enacts the principles of the Enlightenment to international politics; he contributed to the establishment of constitutional republics, which safeguard individual rights. Like Paine, Fanon dedicated his short life to the Algerian Revolution and insists on individual rights universally by pointing out the miseries and injustices within twentieth Bourgeois liberalism and colonialism. Therefore, he performs some of the humanist values articulated by Paine in the 18thcentury using a critical discourse, which abrogates the way Europe adulterated the essential elements of the Enlightenment. The first part of the thesis deals with the theories and key concepts which are applied to study the texts. The context of British and French colonization and revolution in America and Algeria is set as background with an interest in an analysis of Britain’s and France’s imperial powers over their colonies and their competition over territorial expansion. The findings of the second partreveal Paine’s and Fanon’s rhetoric strategies which “deconstruct” political and religious “habitus” about the struggle of the American and Algerian peoples while the last part illustrates the way Paine and Fanon perform a social drama staging the suffering of victims of colonial oppression by studying the two authors’ communicative action and their participation to the public sphere.

Description

349f. 30cm. (+ CD -Rom)

Keywords

Colonisation : Algérie, Colonisation : Amérique, Théorie de la révolution, Thomas paine, Frantz Fonon

Citation

Civilization