New Books in Intellectual History Zahi Zalloua, "Fanon, Žižek and the Violence of Resistance" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
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Sep 17, 2025 Zahi Zalloua, a Cushing Eells Professor at Whitman College and author of 'Fanon, Žižek, and the Violence of Resistance,' dives into the intersection of anti-colonial thought and psychoanalysis. He discusses how resistance often entails violence, contrasting the destructive and transformative aspects of it through Fanon and Žižek's perspectives. Zalloua critiques liberal anti-racism, emphasizing the need for a class struggle approach that transcends identity politics. He also links global capitalism to racialization and explores how Gaza serves as a catalyst for global political awareness.
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Resistance Is Experienced As Violence
- Genuine resistance will be experienced as violent by the oppressor rather than being inherently brutal.
- Zahi Zalloua argues that delegitimizing a racist symbolic order is a necessary form of counterviolence.
Dismantling The Master's House
- Transformative resistance requires dismantling the master's house, not reforming it with the master's tools.
- Destructive acts can be part of building a new, universal politics rather than a return to earlier identities.
Liberal Anti-Racism Protects The Status Quo
- Liberal anti-racism often polices speech and avoids confronting structural anti-Blackness.
- Zalloua says liberals preserve the status quo while favoring law-and-order solutions over systemic change.
