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Chapter 4: On National Culture
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wretched of the Earth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence
Oppression and Mental Health
Capitalism, Socialism, and the Third World
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class
Culture and the Emerging Nation
Summary
Analysis
It is not enough for the oppressor to conquer nations and convince the world that nation’s culture does not exist—the oppressor also tries to make the colonized believe that the culture of the colonized is inferior. There are varied responses to this by the colonized. The colonized intellectual dives headlong into the oppressor’s culture and accepts their own as inferior; or, they make a long and detailed list of their indigenous culture and defend it. National culture under colonialism is “a culture under interrogation whose destruction is sought systematically.”
This, too, reflects the racism of European colonialism. Black culture was considered inferior by the West, and it was erased, suppressed, and destroyed at every turn. The absence of art and intellect is considered the height of savagery, and by erasing the culture of the Third World, Europe could thereby declare those from the Third World savages.
Themes
Any persistent cultural expression that is condemned by the colonial power is in itself an example of nationhood. After hundreds of years of oppression, however, there is very little national culture left. After just one hundred years of colonial oppression, culture “becomes rigid in the extreme, congealed, and petrified.” This tension, however, has ramifications on culture. Production of literature goes into overdrive, and there is much diversity in it. As the national consciousness changes, so does the writing of the colonized intellectual. From this point, one can now speak of national literature.
Cultural expression that is condemned by colonial power represents resistance, which thereby represents the struggle for nationhood. This struggle for nationhood, Fanon says, is the very definition of culture. Fanon frequently uses the word “petrified” and his description here of culture as “rigid” and “congealed” harkens to the tense muscles of the colonized. This overproduction of literature is also in response to oppression—another form of resistance—which again represents the national struggle.
Themes
This national literature is like “combat literature” because it builds the national consciousness. Oral literature, too, begins to change. Battles are updated and modernized to recent struggles, heroes, and weapons. Storytellers respond to people’s expectations, and while they make mistakes, they are constantly searching for new national models. Comedy and farce are nearly nonexistent, as is drama.
Fanon’s reference to national literature as “combat literature” again reflects this art as a form of resistance, which makes it part of the struggle for nationhood and the very definition of culture. Writing and storytelling respond to the nation; thus, they accurately reflect it.
Themes
As the national consciousness awakens, music changes. The new jazz coming out of the United States is a certain response to the defeat of the South during the Civil War, Fanon says. It is not unreasonable to believe, Fanon continues, that in 50 years that same jazz music will be defended by whites who believe in a “frozen image” of a specific type of negritude.
Fanon implies that colonialism and the need to decolonize reaches the U.S. as well and includes everyone in the African diaspora. Of course, this also leads to stereotyping and “frozen image” of negritude that doesn’t accurately represent anyone.
Themes
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According to Fanon, “culture is first and foremost the expression of a nation.” The nation is necessary for the existence of culture, as it is the struggle for the nation that encourages the creation of culture. However, the struggle for freedom does not mean that the national culture of the past is restored. Once the struggle is over, Fanon says, colonialism is dead, but so are the colonized. “If culture is the expression of national consciousness,” Fanon continues, “I shall have no hesitation in saying, in the case in point, that national consciousness is the highest form of culture.”
The fact that both the colonist and the colonized are dead after decolonization again reflects the inherent violence of the process. Of course, the death here is largely metaphorical, but it still serves the same purpose. Precolonial culture is dead, Fanon says, just like the people. Struggling for nationhood, which builds the national consciousness, is the national culture in the postcolonial world.
Themes
