Abstract

Gilroy's work offers an important contribution to the recent debate on racism. According to the author, political and theoretical transformations of the so-called postmodern era necessarily affect the way in which "identity" and "race" are construed and practiced. Starting from the history of the African-british and African-american communities, Gilroy proceeds, through analytical and theoretical tools drawn from Foucault's and Fanon's works, towards a re-elaboration of the concepts of "race-thinking", nationalism and fascism, according to the idea of identity as a "diasporic", hybrid and contaminating reality.