This post was republished to englishhonshelp at 8:14:20
PM 1/2/2017
Franz Fanon: The Negro and
Language
·
Basic important to the phenomena of language
·
Black
man- 2 dimension, 1st with
his fellows and 2nd with white men.
·
This self-division of
Negro is a result of colonialist subjugation, the Negro were led to believe
that they are a slow evolution from
monkey to man
·
When we speak a certain language, we adopt its
syntax, understand its morphology, we adapt and assume a culture
and we become a part of its civilization. A man who has his own language can
express and imply the world in his own language. Being a master at a language
fives power. Fanon gives example of Negro
of Antilles who is whiter than average Negro but still faces the problem of
language.
·
Colonized
people- people whose local cultural
originality has been buried and they now face the language of the civilizers,
their language introduces their culture. The black will be elevated if he
adopts the French's cultural standard and he will become whiter( he loses his
blackness with the losing of his local culture)
·
After living in
France, the Negro goes home to be treated as Gods but the natives have felling of love and hatred (uncertainty)
towards them. The phenotype (observable characteristics of a person) of Negro of Antilles is changed, he greets
by slight bow and not by an arm sweep.
Creole
is spoken only to servants and children of Martinique are taught to dread the
language. One is judged by his/her speech. The one who masters the language is
feared like a white man. R eating man - the Negro man misses R and so he
tries very hard to react against the myth. The Negro sometimes allocates the r
badly. (Waiterrrrrrrr give me a beeya)
·
Investigating the modification of body fluids that occur
in Negroes when they arrive in France. The black man changes when he comes to
France because it gave him knowledge and function in life. The 'new comer' speaks only in French and
acts that he has forgotten the native knowledge he received. An example is
given of a man forgetting the name of an apparatus but when the father drops
the apparatus on his foot the memory comes back. He does not understand the
dialect and talks of places like opera which he saw from a distance. He gets
critical about his companion and native land and culture. The new comer either
has to leave his 'paris-ianism’ or
he becomes a living joke.
·
Why
the personality changed? Why this new behavior? Dialect
represents a way of thinking so when the Negro adopts a new language it
signifies separation and dislocation. The Negro gets inferiority complex among
French and so he adopts European dress, furniture, social intercourse etc.
which gives him a sense of equality.
·
Gelb Goldstein- function
of language is broken into periods and steps. Why is Antilles Negro so fond of
French? Because the Negro of Antilles consider themselves inferior to white
man. The Britons of Brittany are however not like that and thus they are
civilized by the white men. The process of colonizing psychologically stops
respiration of natives, they feel suffocated. Intelligence does not win upon
color bias. Black is considered less intelligent, there is no equality of men,
the color-bias leads to destruction of men.
·
Sir Alan Burns-
unable to believe the scientifically proven theory that black man is inferior
to white man. He says the bible and New
Testament theories are absurd like the yellow and black colored man have
such skin because of their sins. Equality can be achieved on the basis of
dignity, love and charity; but Fanon says he wants the black man to free
himself of destructive complexes that were developed by the colonial environment.
1) White men while talking to black behave like an
adult talking to a baby. There are no white men who behave naturally when
they meet Negroes.
2)
The Negro gets angry
when someone speaks pidgin nigger to him because he himself speaks pidgin nigger. The white show lack of
interest and classifies the Negro, he also improves him and tries to
primitivise him and this makes the black man angry.
·
When white talks in
pidgin nigger, it’s to express this thought that “you’d better keep your place”. A Russian or German are not looked
down when they speak imperfect French because they have a language and a
culture of their own but in the case of Negroes it’s not so; they have no
language, culture or civilization in the eyes of the white. It’s not important
to educate them, but it is important to
teach them not to be slaves of their archetypes (colonizers).
·
There are two types
of people, one who forget where they
came from and second who remember.
The Negro of Antilles speaks in his native dialect if he wants to show that
nothing has changed. What happens when Antilles Negro students meet in France?
They have two choices; either stand with
Europe by speaking French or reject
Europe by speaking in dialect. An Antilles Negro is cut down by reminding
him of Antilles by speaking its dialect.
·
Theme
of Fanon is disalienation of the black man and
where there is a lack of understanding in front of white man, it is lack of
judgment. Alienation is Antilles Negro learning French to pass as French and
lack of judgment will be speaking in a dialect at another or any place and getting
ridiculed or insulted.
·
Negro will become
whiter when he adopts French culture.
Aime cesaire and the introduction he receives of being a black poet,
a Negro poet with university degree is not removed from his name. Michel Leiris says the intellectual growth
took place in France and in French; it would be an artifice (bad trick) to use
another language apart from the one you Learned.
Ø So basically Fanon is
advocating the culture and language of blacks/ Negroes. He is not against
French but wants the Negroes to maintain their originality so they can’t be
colonized because they already have a civilization.
Deepali Yadav
Student at Kamala Nehru
College (DU)
Contact me @ deepaliyadav2896@gmail.com
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