Tell Dem Wagwan Fanon: On [Colonial] Violence and Prison Labour in Canada

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dc.contributor.advisorGamal Abdel-Shehid
dc.contributor.authorKrystal Alisha Batelaan
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-07T11:15:29Z
dc.date.available2024-11-07T11:15:29Z
dc.date.copyright2024-09-06
dc.date.issued2024-11-07
dc.date.updated2024-11-07T11:15:28Z
dc.degree.disciplineSocial & Political Thought
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation, I draw on Frantz Fanon’s concepts of cultural imposition and collective catharsis to examine how the colonized subject, like the incarcerated Black worker, undergoes a double process of dehumanization wherein they are perceived as both an invisible and hypervisible subject. I argue that the colonized subject is invisible insofar as they are subjected to various forms of dehumanization such as physiological and psychological abuse, lack of access to resources, and neglect. However, they are also perceived as hypervisible because they are viewed as existing in excess as hypersexual, hyper deviant, and hyper criminal creatures and therefore deserving of the treatment they endure. Similarly, the incarcerated worker is viewed as invisible and hypervisible because they are viewed as unskilled and subhuman beings undeserving of adequate pay and protections but are also perceived as best suited to work in poor conditions doing less skilled, undervalued, low-paying work. By tracing how this relationship between race, racialization and labour is underpinned by whiteness both historically and in a contemporary sense, I demonstrate how the use of prison labour within a Canadian multicultural context must necessarily be read through a normalizing white gaze, under the guise of public safety and rehabilitation; here the prison functions as a disciplinary site wherein Black and racialized prisoners are constructed as inferior beings in need of heightened control through labour. In doing so, I argue that the use of prison labour in Canadian prisons is a form of colonial violence that reproduces inferior and superior colonial identities.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/42492
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectBlack studies
dc.subjectPhilosophy
dc.subject.keywordsFrantz Fanon
dc.subject.keywordsPrison Labour
dc.subject.keywordsCollective Catharsis
dc.subject.keywordsCultural Imposition
dc.titleTell Dem Wagwan Fanon: On [Colonial] Violence and Prison Labour in Canada
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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