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Afropessimism by Frank Wilderson (2021, Trade Paperback)

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About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherLiveright Publishing Corporation

ISBN-101324090510

ISBN-139781324090519

eBay Product ID (ePID)5050402904

Product Key Features

Number of Pages368 Pages

Publication NameAfropessimism

LanguageEnglish

SubjectGeneral

Publication Year2021

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaEducation

AuthorFrank Wilderson

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.1 in

Item Weight10.6 Oz

Item Length0.8 in

Item Width0.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal371.82996

SynopsisLonglisted for the National Book Award and hailed as "a bellwether of things to come" (Aaron Robertson), Afropessimism exploded conventional theories of race relations in America, presenting the tenets of an intellectual movement that sees Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Drawing on the works of Gramsci and Fanon, as well as on literature, film, and critical theory, Frank B. Wilderson III, one of our "boldest and most unflinching theorists of the indispensability ... of anti-Black violence and racism" (Khalil Gibran Muhammad), powerfully demonstrates that the social construct of slavery is not, in fact, a relic of the past, but the very engine that powers our civilization. Without this master-slave dynamic, Wilderson argues, the calculus bolstering world civilization would collapse. Interwoven with autobiographical stories that juxtapose Wilderson's seemingly idyllic upbringing in mid-century Minneapolis with the abject racism he later encountered in Berkeley, California, and South Africa, Afropessimism not only delivers a formidable philosophical account of Blackness, but "depicts a remarkable life, lived with daring and sincerity" (Paul C. Taylor, Washington Post). Ultimately, Wilderson provides no restorative solution. Instead, he encourages us to recognize these historical and social conditions-and thus, the reality of our inherently racialized existence. Book jacket., "Wilderson's thinking teaches us to believe in the miraculous even as we decry the brutalities out of which miracles emerge"--Fred Moten, Why does race seem to color almost every feature of our moral and political universe? Why does a perpetual cycle of slavery-in all its political, intellectual, and cultural forms-continue to define the Black experience? And why is anti-Black violence such a predominant feature not only in the United States but around the world? These are just some of the compelling questions that animate Afropessimism, Frank B. Wilderson III's seminal work on the philosophy of Blackness. Combining precise philosophy with a torrent of memories, Wilderson presents the tenets of an increasingly prominent intellectual movement that sees Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Drawing on works of philosophy, literature, film, and critical theory, he shows that the social construct of slavery, as seen through pervasive anti-Black subjugation and violence, is hardly a relic of the past but the very engine that powers our civilization, and that without this master-slave dynamic, the calculus bolstering world civilization would collapse. Unlike any other disenfranchised group, Wilderson argues, Blacks alone will remain essentially slaves in the larger Human world, where they can never be truly regarded as Human beings, where, "at every scale of abstraction, violence saturates Black life." And while Afropessimism delivers a formidable philosophical account of being Black, it is also interwoven with dramatic set pieces, autobiographical stories that juxtapose Wilderson's seemingly idyllic upbringing in mid-century Minneapolis with the abject racism he later encounters-whether in late 1960s Berkeley or in apartheid South Africa, where he joins forces with the African National Congress. Afropessimism provides no restorative solution to the hatred that abounds; rather, Wilderson believes that acknowledging these historical and social conditions will result in personal enlightenment about the reality of our inherently racialized existence. Radical in conception, remarkably poignant, and with soaring flights of lyrical prose, Afropessimism reverberates with wisdom and painful clarity in the fractured world we inhabit. It positions Wilderson as a paradigmatic thinker and as a twenty-first-century inheritor of many of the African American literary traditions established in centuries past., Praised as "a trenchant, funny, and unsparing work of memoir and philosophy" (Aaron Robertson, ? Literary Hub ), Frank B. Wilderson's Afropessimism arrived at a moment when protests against police brutality once again swept the nation. Presenting an argument we can no longer ignore, Wilderson insists that we must view Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Radical in conception, remarkably poignant, and with soaring flights of memoir, Afropessimism reverberates with wisdom and painful clarity in the fractured world we inhabit."Wilderson's ambitious book offers its readers two great gifts. First, it strives mightily to make its pessimistic vision plausible. . . . Second, the book depicts a remarkable life, lived with daring and sincerity."--Paul C. Taylor, Washington Post

LC Classification NumberLC2717