Title Phenomenal blackness : Black power, philosophy, and theory / Mark Christian Thompson

Published Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2022 ©2022

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Description 1 online resource (195 pages) Series Thinking literature Thinking literature. Contents The essence of the matter -- The politics of Black friendship : Gadamer, Baldwin and the Black hermeneutic -- The Aardvark of history : Malcolm X, language and power -- Black aesthetic autonomy : Ralph Ellison, Amiri Baraka, and "literary Negro-ness" -- The revolutionary will not be hypnotized : Eldridge Cleaver and Black ideology -- Unrepeatable : Angela Y. Davis and Black critical theory -- Black aesthetic theory Summary "Phenomenal Blackness examines the changing interdisciplinary investments of key mid-century African American writers and thinkers, showing how their investments in sociology and anthropology gave way to a growing interest in German philosophy and critical theory by the 1960s. Thompson analyzes this shift in intellectual focus across the post-war decades, pinpointing its clearest expression in Amiri Baraka's writings on jazz and blues, in which he insisted on philosophy as the critical means by which to grasp African American expressive culture. More sociologically oriented thinkers, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, had understood blackness as a singular set of socio-historical characteristics. In contrast, writers such as Baraka, James Baldwin, Angela Y. Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and Malcolm X were variously drawn to notions of an African essence, an ontology of Black being. For them, the work of Adorno, Habermas, Marcuse, and German thinkers was a vital resource, allowing for continued cultural-materialist analysis while accommodating the hermeneutical aspects of African American religious thought. Mark Christian Thompson argues that these efforts to reimagine Black singularity led to a phenomenological understanding of blackness--a "Black aesthetic dimension" wherein aspirational models for Black liberation might emerge"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject African Americans -- Intellectual life -- 20th century African American philosophy. Philosophy, German. Critical theory -- History African American aesthetics. Criticism -- United States -- History American literature -- African American authors -- German influences HISTORY / United States / General. African American aesthetics African American philosophy African Americans -- Intellectual life Critical theory Criticism Philosophy, German United States Genre/Form Electronic books History Form Electronic book ISBN 0226816435 9780226816432

Other Titles Black power, philosophy, and theory

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