FRANTZ FANON AND THE POSTCOLONIAL AESTHETICS

Abstract

Critics have emphasised Frantz Fanon’s contributions to the emergence of what is today known as the postcolonial literature. His writings have laid the foundation of its theory and practice. One of the areas that is still generating debates is the area of aesthetics of postcolonial literature. Some critics have suggested that the only way to have a fruitful exploration of the aesthetic aspect of postcolonial literature is to combine Kant’s theory of aesthetics with Fanon’s. Fanon emphasises the development of postcolonial writers from his immersion into colonial culture to his rebellion against same leading to his incomplete intellectual emancipation thus establishing the field as a centre of political and cultural commitment. This does not mean that the field does not possess its own aesthetics or that Fanon was silent on it. Boehmer and Ashcroft have identified language of the postcolonial text as its aesthetics. This paper traces the development of the postcolonial theory and its aesthetics from its beginning through the thoughts expanded by Frantz Fanon to unearth some other postcolonial aesthetic parameters. The paper employs postcolonial theory as its theoretical framework. The findings of this paper are though politics is at the center of the postcolonial literature, this does not negate its aesthetic commitment right from its foundation in the works of Frantz Fanon. Postcolonial aesthetics is not just restricted to the language of the postcolonial texts. There are other parameters like song, history and performance constitute the postcolonial aesthetics as exemplified in the works of Kamau Brathwaite.