The Black Situation: Notes on Black Critical Theory Now. (22nd February 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- The Black Situation: Notes on Black Critical Theory Now. (22nd February 2022)
- Main Title:
- The Black Situation: Notes on Black Critical Theory Now
- Authors:
- Reed, Anthony
- Abstract:
- Abstract: This essay argues that what some critics have dubbed an ontological turn in Black critical theory—the tendency to theorize racial antagonisms in general and antiblackness in particular as a function of the "being" of the West—reflects a more general pessimism endemic to our historical moment. That pessimism has been catalyzed by the collapse of meaningful alternatives in the postcolonial, post-communist moment, which results in occluded or obscured pathways to collective striving and worldmaking. One important response to the ontological turn has seen critics turn to Black culture to highlight peculiar modes of subjectivity shaped, but not defined by, ongoing racial antagonism. As Black particularity in this account remains implicit or intuitive, insofar as Black particularity remains a given rather than theorized, this tendency proves to be the other's flipside rather than alternative. This essay concludes by proposing that rather than studying culture to understand Black life, one study Black life to understand cultural production. The titular "Black situation" is its term for historical materialist analysis attuned to the complex modalities through which racial antagonism appears in daily life as well as the compulsions that impede sovereign individual agency.
- Is Part Of:
- American literary history. Volume 34:Number 1(2022)
- Journal:
- American literary history
- Issue:
- Volume 34:Number 1(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 34, Issue 1 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0034-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 283
- Page End:
- 300
- Publication Date:
- 2022-02-22
- Subjects:
- American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
820.9 - Journal URLs:
- http://alh.oxfordjournals.org/ ↗
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1093/alh/ajac001 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0896-7148
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 0840.757500
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 20942.xml