Charles Villet

Biography

My project deals with the politics of recognition in South Africa, focusing on the role played by economic conditions (wealth and poverty) in racial identity beyond Apartheid. The main thesis is that South Africa is a heterotopia for rich and poor: Economic affluence is becoming the dominant form of recognition, resulting especially in misrecognition of the poor. The study takes its cue from Frantz Fanon’s reinterpretation of Hegel’s master-slave dialectic within the colonial context: The insight is that the dialectic was re-inscribed along racial lines with a white master (colonist) and black slave (native). Recognition for the black slave is only possible through violence because s/he is rendered invisible by whiteness as the measure of humanity, which itself is rendered invisible to whites due to the privileges it affords them.

Research Interest

Social Philosophy (Hegel, Fanon and modern theories of power) Politics of Recognition (Fraser, Honneth, Ricoeur and Taylor) Postcolonialism Whiteness Studies Heterotopian Studies