Memmi and Béji: Decolonization and the place of the “human” within “humanism”
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Date
2012-02-01
Authors
Crowley, Patrick
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Publisher
Intellect
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Abstract
Since the 1950s and the period of decolonization, intellectuals in the francophone world have addressed the legacy of humanism. Frantz Fanon, amongst others, wrote on the possibilities of a new humanism and of ‘new man’ in a decolonized world. This humanism to be constructed, this humanism to come, was faced with the difficulty of how to negotiate the legacy of the European tradition of humanism and the conceptually constructed tension between particularizing experiences deemed proper to cultures outside of Europe and a notion of the universal, which, while an abstraction, was also characteristically French. In examining works by two Tunisian intellectuals – Albert Memmi and Hélé Béji – this article analyses what they try to do with the term ‘humanism’. It is clear that both intellectuals advocate a better world and an end to human suffering, but their principal weapon– humanism – lacks sharpness and the kind of political edge (dialectical) that characterized Fanon’s notion of ‘new humanism’.
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Keywords
Albert Memmi , Frantz Fanon , Humanism , Decolonization , Tunisia , Hélé Béji
Citation
Crowley, P. (2013) ‘Memmi and Béji: Decolonization and the place of the “human” within “humanism”’, International Journal of Francophone Studies, 15(3), pp. 415–433. doi: 10.1386/ijfs.15.3-4.415_1
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© Patrick Crowley 2013. The definitive, peer reviewed and edited version of this article is published in International Journal of Francophone Studies, 15(3), pp. 415-433, https://doi.org/10.1386/ijfs.15.3-4.415_1