The Horrifying Sacred: Hip-Hop, Blackness, and the Figure of the Monster

In this article, I examine the intersection of two trajectories of thought and practice regarding the relationship between the sacred and the monstrous. One trajectory includes authors like George Bataille who, contrary to those who define the sacred in terms of purity and order, associate the sacre...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Winters, Joseph (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: The Pennsylvania State University Press [2017]
In: Journal of Africana religions
Year: 2017, Volume: 5, Issue: 2, Pages: 291-299
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Bataille, Georges 1897-1962 / Monster / Holiness / Blacks / Hip-hop
IxTheo Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AE Psychology of religion
NBE Anthropology
ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:In this article, I examine the intersection of two trajectories of thought and practice regarding the relationship between the sacred and the monstrous. One trajectory includes authors like George Bataille who, contrary to those who define the sacred in terms of purity and order, associate the sacred with those forces and energies that can be horrifying and anguish-filled. The other trajectory includes Black authors and artists like Christina Sharpe who have responded to a white supremacist legacy of associating Black bodies with the monstrous, with excessive flesh, with that space between the human and the animal. Black bodies have traditionally been marked as “matter out of place,” as that dirt that resists form (like the monster). In this essay, I look at Black music, particularly hip-hop and reggae, as a space where the relationship between the monster figure and monstrosity is reexpressed and visualized.
ISSN:2165-5413
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.5.2.0291