James Williams, Professor of Modern French Literature and Film, has written a major new book exploring the life and work of Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), the pioneering Afro-Caribbean intellectual whose influential work combined psychology, history, philosophy and politics. The book will appear as a paperback in the Critical Lives series published by Reaktion Books, and will be available from 1 November 2023.

Doctor, militant, political essayist, teacher, journalist, diplomat, pan-Africanist: Frantz Fanon represented a new model of multi-engaged intellectual who sought to decolonize mid-twentieth-century thought, society and culture and move beyond the ideology of race. Born Black in colonial Martinique, he fought for France during the Second World War but later renounced his native land and aspired to be Algerian during the Algerian War of Independence. Foregrounding Fanon's gift for self-invention and performance, Professor Williams's book charts the major turning points in the short, extraordinary life of this visionary figure, and reveals how Fanon's pioneering work in psychiatry influenced his revolutionary writing and philosophy.

Find out more about the book and order it here.