Abstractionist Aesthetics: Artistic Form And Social Critique In African American Culture (nyu Series In Social And Cultural Analysis)
by Phillip Brian Harper /
2015 / English / PDF
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In a major reassessment of African American culture, Phillip
Brian Harper intervenes in the ongoing debate about the “proper”
depiction of black people. He advocates for African American
aesthetic abstractionism—a representational mode whereby an
artwork, rather than striving for realist verisimilitude,
vigorously asserts its essentially artificial character.
Maintaining that realist representation reaffirms the very
social facts that it might have been understood to challenge,
Harper contends that abstractionism shows up the actual
constructedness of those facts, thereby subjecting them to
critical scrutiny and making them amenable to transformation.
In a major reassessment of African American culture, Phillip
Brian Harper intervenes in the ongoing debate about the “proper”
depiction of black people. He advocates for African American
aesthetic abstractionism—a representational mode whereby an
artwork, rather than striving for realist verisimilitude,
vigorously asserts its essentially artificial character.
Maintaining that realist representation reaffirms the very
social facts that it might have been understood to challenge,
Harper contends that abstractionism shows up the actual
constructedness of those facts, thereby subjecting them to
critical scrutiny and making them amenable to transformation.
Arguing against the need for “positive” representations,
Arguing against the need for “positive” representations,Abstractionist Aesthetics
Abstractionist Aesthetics displaces realism as the
primary mode of African American representational aesthetics,
re-centers literature as a principal site of African American
cultural politics, and elevates experimental prose within the
domain of African American literature. Drawing on examples across
a variety of artistic production, including the visual work of
Fred Wilson and Kara Walker, the music of Billie Holiday and
Cecil Taylor, and the prose and verse writings of Ntozake Shange,
Alice Walker, and John Keene, this book poses urgent questions
about how racial blackness is made to assume certain social
meanings. In the process, African American aesthetics are
upended, rendering abstractionism as the most powerful modality
for Black representation.
displaces realism as the
primary mode of African American representational aesthetics,
re-centers literature as a principal site of African American
cultural politics, and elevates experimental prose within the
domain of African American literature. Drawing on examples across
a variety of artistic production, including the visual work of
Fred Wilson and Kara Walker, the music of Billie Holiday and
Cecil Taylor, and the prose and verse writings of Ntozake Shange,
Alice Walker, and John Keene, this book poses urgent questions
about how racial blackness is made to assume certain social
meanings. In the process, African American aesthetics are
upended, rendering abstractionism as the most powerful modality
for Black representation.