Abstractionist Aesthetics : Artistic Form and Social Critique in African American Culture / Phillip Brian Harper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harper, Phillip Brian, Author.

Series:

NYU series in social and cultural analysis.

NYU Series in Social and Cultural Analysis ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American arts--Themes, motives.

African American arts.

Abstraction.

African American aesthetics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Other Title:

Abstractionist Aesthetics

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

An artistic discussion on the critical potential of African American expressive cultureIn 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, 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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: Against Positive Images

1. Black Personhood in the Maw of Abstraction

2. Historical Cadence and the Nitty-Gritty Effect

3. Telling It Slant

Coda: The Literary Advantage

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Credits:

Book design and composition by Nicole Hayward.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9781479867981

1479867985

9781479808878

1479808873

OCLC:

926049141