The Primal Scene of anti-Blackness: The Masochist Jouissance of White Racism
[...]the earlier reference to political ontology: If we are to avoid a lengthy and complicated digression, suffice it to say that despite significant variations in how Afro-pessimist thinkers have drawn upon, critically applied, or critiqued Lacanian ideas, it is nonetheless the case that Lacanian t...
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Published in | The Comparatist Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 7 - 28 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina Press
01.10.2022
University of North Carolina Press |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | [...]the earlier reference to political ontology: If we are to avoid a lengthy and complicated digression, suffice it to say that despite significant variations in how Afro-pessimist thinkers have drawn upon, critically applied, or critiqued Lacanian ideas, it is nonetheless the case that Lacanian theory has provided an important resource in surveying the conditions of anti-Blackness.1 My aim here is to consider how Lacanian theory, particularly used alongside Fanon's conceptualizations in Black Skin White Masks, might contribute to the Afro-pessimist project of analyzing anti-Black fantasies and how they, following Sexton, "attain objective value . . . in the political and . . . . psychic life of culture" (14). While what I offer is, admittedly, a modest contribution to the evolving field of Afro-pessimist discourse, it is more than negligible, especially given the determining role accorded to fantasy by psychoanalysis and the evident force and ontological import of anti-Black fantasy as stressed by Sexton (we might cite in this respect Christopher Lane, who channels Freud in defense of psychoanalysis as a necessary means of political analysis: "What . . . could be more political than fantasy when it determines the fate of entire communities, nations and even continents?" [7]). [...]the racism as theft of enjoyment thesis risks becoming a "one size fits all" de-historicizing and de-politicizing formula. |
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ISSN: | 0195-7678 1559-0887 1559-0887 |
DOI: | 10.1353/com.2022.0001 |