Transnational perspectives on Black subjectivity

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Stevens, G., Bell, D. ORCID: 0000-0001-9133-4927, Sonn, C.C., Canham, H. and Clennon, O., 2017. Transnational perspectives on Black subjectivity. South African Journal of Psychology, 47 (4), pp. 459-469. ISSN 0081-2463

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317737929

Abstract

In this article, five Black researchers bring their insights into conversation about meanings of blackness in contemporary Australia, Jamaica, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. We critically interrogate blackness transnationally and also within the historical contexts of our work and lived experiences. Situated within critical race studies, we draw on multiple theoretical frameworks that seek to preserve the complexity of blackness, its meanings and implications. We examine what it means to be made Black by history and context and explore the im/possibilities of transcending such subjectification. In so doing, we engage blackness and its relationality to whiteness; the historical, temporal, and spatial dimensions of what it means to be Black; the embodied, affective and psychical components of Black subjectivity; and the continued marketisation of blackness today. The article concludes by reflecting on the emancipatory promise of continued engagement with Black subjectivity, but with critical reflexivity, so as to avoid the pitfalls of engaging blackness as a static and essentialised mode of subjectivity.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

South African Journal of Psychology

Creators:

Stevens, G., Bell, D., Sonn, C.C., Canham, H. and Clennon, O.

Publisher:

Sage

Date:

December 2017

Volume:

Number: