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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Winters, Joseph (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Verificar disponibilidad: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publicado: 2023
En: Black theology
Año: 2023, Volumen: 21, Número: 1, Páginas: 33-46
Otras palabras clave:B heroic genius
B Blackness
B racial ontology
B the grotesque
B Aesthetics
B paraontology
Acceso en línea: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Descripción
Sumario: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.
ISSN:1743-1670
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Black theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2023.2180131