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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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Comparatist Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 7 - 28
Main Author Hook, Derek
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina Press 01.10.2022
University of North Carolina Press
Subjects
Consumption
Fanon, Frantz (1925-1961)
Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)
Lacan, Jacques Marie Emile (1901-1981)
Ontology
Pessimism
Politics
Psychoanalysis
Racism
Sexuality
Social aspects
Violence
White people
New York
United Kingdom
United States > US
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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.
ISSN:0195-7678
1559-0887
1559-0887
DOI:10.1353/com.2022.0001