누구를 위한 혁명인가?: 파농의「베일 벗은 알제리」와 여성해방의 복화술

Abstract

The opening question of “what does the black man want?” in Black Skin, White Masks remains Fanon’s overriding concern in his whole career. The generic terms like ‘the Negro’ and ‘the native’ are almost always marked as male. A meticulous reading of “Algeria Unveiled” reveals that Fanon is just another black nationalist who recognizes gender relations as a formative dimension of national liberation. In highlighting the Algerian women’s resis- tance to the civilizing mission of colonial power, Fanon unknowingly denies “the historic dynamism of the veil” within Algerian patriarchal society. Preoccupied with the nationalist agenda of debunking colonialist rescue fanta- sy, Fanon is unaware that the veil, once a means to exclude Algerian women from public space, is now a cultural and ideological battleground between Algerian patriarchy and European colonialism. Moreover, Fanon’s notions of female instrumentality are unmistakable. Though Fanon applauds Algerian women for their courageous and self-immolating struggle, his narrative still hinges upon the hierarchical binarism between male fighter and female helper. So women’s liberation in Fanon becomes a ventriloquial discourse for national liberation. Algerian women, without any histories before the Algerian War, are called upon by Algerian men to play an ideological upstart as well as freedom fighter, and their place ever remains within and below the nation.