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The Emergence of the Fanonian New Man in Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa!

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2006, 19(1), pp.5-29
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Kang, Hyeong-min 1

1건국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Kang, Hyeong-minThis paper investigates the emergence of the Fanonian New Man in Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa! by employing Frantz Fanon's philosophy of the revolutionary decolonization. In his philosophy of the revolutionary decolonization, Fanon argues that since colonialism is violent in nature, it can be defeated only when it is confronted by greater violence. Fanon insists that through violence in the revolutionary decolonization, the colonized, first, can bind the colonized people together as a whole against colonialism; second, they can make a clear break from colonialism; third, violence is a cleansing force since it can erase the inferiority complex of the colonized. In the process of the revolutionary decolonization, Fanon predicts the emergence of a "new man" who is the real revolutionary with the unity of theory and praxis, with the integration with his/her people, and with the application of democratic principles.In My Children! My Africa!, Athol Fugard tries not only to criticize the oppressive and segregative policy of apartheid in South Africa but also to show the violent uprising against the oppressors as an inevitable instrument for achieving true emancipation of the oppressed. Although he is a member of the elite in the colonial education system and a promising future is waiting for him, the protagonist not only gives up the opportunity but also makes up his mind to become a revolutionary. His decision is against his teacher's advice who is a father figure for the protagonist. However, by integrating himself with his people's hardship in the oppression, the protagonist transforms himself into a revolutionary, a real teacher, who has the authority to lead his people to the liberation movement against the oppression and thus to lead his people to the new world of the postcolonial era.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.