ONLINE FIRST
published on November 1, 2024
Zeynep Direk

https://doi.org/10.5840/ecoethica2024102566
Lived Experience and Affectivity in Fanon
This essay attempts to integrate Robert Bernasconi¡¯s interpretation of the lived experience of the colonized in Frantz Fanon in accordance with Sartre¡¯s ¡°regressive-progressive¡± method with a psychoanalytical investigation of affectivity. Fanon notes that the affectivity of the colonized is overexcited; however, he also points to various kinds of displacements. The psychoanalytical theory posits that under conditions of oppression, defensive mechanisms encounter the lived experience of feeling. In traumatic situations, affect does not spontaneously translate into feelings. Fanon argues that the tendency to adapt to the harsh reality of colonialism is not without immense tension. His challenge in?The Wretched of the Earth?is an intervention in the psyche of the colonized. In The Wretched of the Earth, he creates an imaginary and symbolic space about revolution and the process of decolonization, aiming to transform the colonized¡¯s awareness of oppression through bodily affects into a space capable of accommodating feelings.