Animating Black and Brown Liberation
Animating Black and Brown Liberation introduces a vital new tool for reading American literatures. Rooted in both ancient Egyptian ideas about life and cutting-edge theories of animacy, or levels of aliveness, this tool-ankhing-enables Michael Datcher to examine the ways African American and Latinx literatures respond to and ultimately work to resist hegemonic forces of neoliberalism and state-sponsored oppression. Weaving together close readings and politically informed philosophical reflection, Datcher considers the work of writer-activists Toni Cade Bambara, Cherr e Moraga, Gloria Anzald a, June Jordan, Salvador Plascencia, and Ishmael Reed, in light of theoretical interventions by Jane Bennett, Mel Y. Chen, Bruno Latour, Michel Foucault, Paulo Freire, and Erica R. Edwards. How, he asks, can cultural production positively influence Black and Brown material conditions and mobilize collective action "off the page"? How can art-based counterpublics provide a foundation for Black and Brown community organizing? What emerges from Datcher's innovative analysis is a frank assessment of the links between embodied experiences of racialization, as well as a distinctive vision of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature as a repository of emancipatory strategies with real-world applications.
Author: Michael Datcher
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 04/01/2019
Pages: 180
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781438473406About the Author
Michael Datcher is Assistant Professor of English at Loyola Marymount University. He is the author of several books, including Raising Fences.
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