| Course Description |
In this course, we will approach Fanon’s question through our understanding of violence as it was
invented and deployed from the heart of empire into the colonies. What is fascism and how was it
linked to colonialism, if at all? In what ways were they dependent on each other to conceive a
certain world order, particularly between World War I and II? In other words, how did fascist
visions and colonial practices from the imperial core import repressive structures of violence into
the colonies, and then export those methods of control back into the metropole as a perpetual
renewable source of power?
This course examines the Mediterranean as a site of violence and a theater of “fire and blood,” in
which the inextricable and dialogical bond between colonialism and fascism are tied through
mythologies, discourses, institutions, and of course, revolution. In so doing, we interrogate
Tunisian writer Albert Memmi’s critical intervention of “colonial fascism” that shapes the
confrontations between metropole and colony as an intricate network shaping the contours of the
Mediterranean and renewing itself through violence. It also focuses on the rhetoric undergirding
colonial and fascist discourses, and the counterinsurgent and resistance strategies that, in turn,
challenge these hegemonies. By situating this particular Mediterranean narrative within the
broader colonial discourse, the course encourages critical reflection on the enduring legacies of
imperial power that informs the region’s historical trajectories
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