Course: Caribbean Philosophy Professors Instructions: A comprehensive 7-10 page

Course: Caribbean Philosophy
Professors Instructions: A comprehensive 7-10 page final paper (8 is perfectly fine!). The student should incorporate in this final paper all the relevant material presented in class to their writing topic.
Assessing: the interconnection of the main arguments of the authors studied.
The student must: 1) Identify some aspect of the arguments of the authors studied during the period covered by the examination. 2)Articulate opposing views 3)Make clear the support presented for or against those opposing views by the author. 4)Consider alternative positions (from complementary readings if possible) 5)Express your own position or opinion on the relevance/significance of the views.
My topic is based on Frantz Fanon’s book ‘Black Faces, White Masks’ chapter 6, ‘the black man and psychopathology.’
Brief Background Info: Although Fanon addresses most of Chapter 6 to indigenous and black communities, I am taking the broader Caribbean philosophical approach to apply these concepts to all races. The basic idea is that racialization happens to all, and we are all affected by it (even white people because white is also a race). In short, it’s not a problem faced by some but all. The paper should be more oriented toward critiquing power structures and Eurocentric constructions than psychoanalytic concepts or statistics. It is not to say that racialized people are neurotic, but rather that the constructed world set in place by colonization is the neurosis. A good follow-up point or example could be that therapists don’t usually correlate depression, anxiety, and suicide to racism (they don’t perceive the intersectional aspects behind health in racialized bodies). The fact that therapists can’t see racism or its effects says that they are just as neurotic for failing to see the project of the Enlightenment. (connected to other authors seen in class; see resources). Suppose the therapist silences the existence (in terms of existing experience) of racism and my personal experience. In that case, they are complicit in the reproduction of these racial powers and systems.
Solution: How do we overcome the issues highlighted? This is where the other resources/authors come in handy! Each philosopher will have their resolution to the problem of the project of the Enlightenment (which it all must circle back to). A good solution to this would be interconnectedness that recognizes humanity, which Glissant (and other authors listed) mention. The background focus is to correlate the racialization to the project of enlightenment and how that came to happen, which eventually led us to today’s racialization. Other authors (listed) talk more about the Enlightenment than Fanon.
You can choose which authors to use as the supporting or relevant arguments (as long as what you use is from the books or articles listed):
– Michel-Rolph Trouillot – Silencing the Past
– Sylvia Wynter – Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Part I, II and III.
– Maryse Condé – The Journey of a Caribbean Writer (Ch. 1, 3, 5, 13, 17)
– Judith Butler – The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind (Ch. 1,2,3)
– Edouard Glissant – Open Boat / Errantry / Creolization (3 separate works)
NOTE: you DON’T have to use ALL authors listed. But please include the most relevant ones in the paper.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you! 🙂