The Impact of Community Perception on Self-Identification: Beauvoir and Fanon

This work sets out to investigate the respective impact of Simone de Beauvoir and Frantz Fanon on the field of phenomenology. Particularly, it draws connection between their shared dedication to the field to extrapolate social and political implications. Of Beauvoir, the focus is her work, “Pyrrhus and Cineas”, where she details the comportment which individuals should possess about their contentment in life, and importantly the way this relates to freedom for oneself and those around them. The key point is how her work emphasizes maintaining authentic relations with other people. Regarding Fanon, the topic of discussion is his piece titled, “The Lived Experience of the Black Man”, from his larger work, “Black Skin, White Masks.” In this context, the notion of gaze is discussed in relation to his body-schema. Further attention is devoted to the specific dialectic impacting Black men in colonial society. The conclusion emphasizes how both works cannot be properly received in a vacuum but issue a stark call to go into the world actively striving for liberation of human subjects.