Aside from Ontology, Toward Blackness
This essay argues that Victor Anderson’s Beyond Ontological Blackness anticipates some of the key debates and concerns within contemporary black studies. Anderson’s groundbreaking text exposes tendencies within African American cultural thought to essentialise blackness, to ascribe totalising qualit...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2023
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| In: |
Black theology
Year: 2023, Volume: 21, Issue: 1, Pages: 33-46 |
| Further subjects: | B
heroic genius
B Blackness B racial ontology B the grotesque B Aesthetics B paraontology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay argues that Victor Anderson’s Beyond Ontological Blackness anticipates some of the key debates and concerns within contemporary black studies. Anderson’s groundbreaking text exposes tendencies within African American cultural thought to essentialise blackness, to ascribe totalising qualities to black life and limit possibilities for fulfilment and transcendence. He responds to these often-unexamined commitments to ontological blackness by turning to a postmodern conception of difference and plurality. I show how Anderson’s concerns resonate with authors like Fred Moten, Nahum Chandler, and Michelle Wright, thinkers who re-imagine blackness in a manner that circumvents pure beginnings (Chandler and Moten) and accounts of black experience that unduly prioritise slavery and the middle passage (Wright). My basic claim is that black studies and related fields should continue thinking about blackness, non-being, and differentiation, enduring problems that Anderson’s work provides a guide to confront. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-1670 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Black theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2023.2180131 |