Leiden University Student Repository

Grandison, Kem (2024)

From black Orpheus: Recognition and Ressentiment in post-colonialism

Master thesis | Philosophy (MA) (60 EC)

In this thesis, I explore how to construct a black identity divorced from its origins in European colonialism. To do this, I examine the role that the power dynamics between oppressor and oppressed play in constructing identity and value, using Nietzsche's works Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals. I will then show how such dynamics can lead to a negative or "unhealthy" construction of identity in Césaire's concept of negritude, due to its basis in what Nietzsche calls 'ressentiment'. Finally, I will conclude with an examination of Fanon's concept of recognition and assess the extent to which it can lead a concept of black identity out of ressentiment and towards a more life-affirming conception of the self.

Post-colonialism

Friedrich Nietzsche

Frantz Fanon

Ressentiment

Negritude

beyond good and evil

Author

Grandison, Kem

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Moral and Political philosophy

Supervisors

Michael Eze

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en