Frantz Fanon In and Through Translation

You are cordially invited to attend the public lecture "Frantz Fanon In and Through Translation" as a part of the project team workshop on the translation of Fanon's writings into a number of languages. The lecture is  hosted by the Department of Arabic and Translation Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Led by Dr. Kathryn Batchelor of the University of Nottingham, the research team comprises: 

• Dr. Sue-Ann Harding, Hamad Bin Khalifa University
• Dr. Farzana Farahzad, Tehran University
• Dr. Christopher Larkosh, University of Massachusetts and visiting professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University
• Dr. Sattar Izwaini, American University of Sharjah

Frantz Fanon's writings have had a significant impact across the globe, playing into contexts as diverse as the Black Power movement in the United States, Third Worldism in Germany, and the South African black consciousness movement. Summaries of Fanon's impact have been widely cited and reproduced, but are rarely substantiated, and almost invariably ignore the many ramifications of the fact that Fanon's texts achieved their impact through translation.

In this presentation, we will outline the collaborative research project currently being undertaken into the translations of Fanon's texts into a range of languages, including Arabic, English and Persian. Far from being simply a comparative study of the textual properties of the translations, the project seeks to explore the social and political circumstances through and into which the translations were published, the ideological backgrounds of the translators, and the various paratextual factors that influenced how the translations were read.

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was a psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author. Born in Martinique, he trained as a psychiatrist in France and took up a post at a hospital in colonial Algeria. Appalled by the violence and degradation associated with colonial rule, he became a seminal anticolonial theorist and a spokesperson for the liberation movement. His writings on decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization are widely read today, and Fanon remains a key figure in post-colonial studies.

For more information, please contact Dr. Sattar Izwaini,  [email protected] .