The language of monsters: Fanon on power and violence

Abstract

In this article I deal with various aspects of the relationship between politics and violence, with a specific emphasis on the mediation of language. More specifically, I want to show through a consideration of Frantz Fanon’s thought how power always employs violence in and through a language, a grammar, a syntax. Yet, I will also point out how the language itself is a fundamental theoretical kernel in which a vital resistance to power, both ontological and political, is expressed. The violence of power, even in its most extreme forms, is always employed through an action on language. Nevertheless, certain political philosophers have offered a different perspective concerning the relationship between language and power. Defining resistance as the basic characteristic of politics, they have pointed out that the conflict with power takes place also within language. Language becomes a real theoretical battlefield through which it is possible to think a different role and meaning for violence. It is Fanon’s theoretical and political writings that can help us define a different conception of violence. Through an analysis of these works, I will reveal what for power is the “monstrous” character of resistance as well as its relation to the language of violence.