Journal Facts

Journal
Auto/Biography
ISSN
0967-5507
Volume
13
Issue
1

Article Facts

Title
The Role of Colour and `Ethnic' Autobiography: Fanon, Capécia and Difference
DOI
10.1191/0967550705ab013oa
Author
Maureen Perkins (Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, mperkins at iinet.net.au)
Pages
1-15

Article Links

The Role of Colour and `Ethnic' Autobiography: Fanon, Capécia and Difference

Maureen Perkins (Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, mperkins at iinet.net.au)

DOI: 10.1191/0967550705ab013oa

Abstract

This paper argues that in many recent life narratives a new openness about the part played by colour undermines what have historically been the fixed essentialisms of race. In particular, memoirs that acknowledge difference and division amongst people `of colour' (such as the fierce criticism by Frantz Fanon of Mayotte Capécia's autobiography) highlight the complexities of racialized categories, and problematize the nexus between `race' and `ethnicity'. Analysis of the genre of `ethnic' autobiography has until recently been largely dominated by American scholars, whose understanding of black—white positions has been premised on homogenous racial identities, which have taken for granted that `ethnicity' implies `minority' or coloured status, neglecting discussion of white as a colour. As `inbetween' and alternative colour positions make their voices heard, and those for whom colour/race is in some sense at odds with culture/ethnicity, it is necessary to rethink the role of `ethnic' autobiography, to reconceptualize the role of colour within it, and perhaps to reject its usefulness as a category altogether.

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