Stripping Away the Masks of Identity: Adorno and Fanon's Negative Dialectics

Abstract: This article stages a critical dialogue between Theodor Adorno and Frantz Fanon, arguing that their writings on negative dialectics and (non)identity thinking reveal the political non-identity of negative dialectics itself. First, we contend that Adorno and Fanon's negotiations of the violence inherent in identity thinking is paramount to their respective oeuvres. Second, we address criticisms of Adorno and Fanon's political response to the violence of identity thinking: that Adorno is an elitist conservative and Fanon an identitarian lover of violence. Finally, we interrogate how both exhibited their radically democratic commitment to the people's self-creation through their work on radio.