Black existentialism

Black Existentialism is both a school of thought which impacts African American philosophy as well as African American literature.

Black Existential Philosophy

The first African-American to earn a doctorate from Harvard University earned his degree in sociology, however the work of W. E. B. DuBois will always be honored in the canon of African American philosophy. W. E. B. DuBois' notion of double consciousnesscite book | author=W. E. B. DuBois | title=The Souls of Black Folk | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VuUtAAAAIAAJ&dq=The+Souls+of+Black+Folk&pg=PP1&ots=lFmYemWF00&sig=XkOMpTS5oi8_BgOoE-4gTMMkjPU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP1,M1 | work=The Souls of Black Folk | date=1897 | accessdate=2008-08-31] has been revisited by many scholars as a notion doused in existentialism. cite article | author= Earnest Allen Jr. | title= On the Reading of Riddles: Rethinking DuBoisian Double Consciousness | url=http://www.umass.edu/afroam/downloads/allen.riddles.pdf | work= Existence in Black | date=1997 | accessdate=2008-08-31]

Cornel West has addressed the problem of Black Nihilism and it's effect on the African-American community.

The proper starting point for the crucial debate about the prospects for black America is an examination of the nihilism that increasingly pervades black communities. Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophic doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or authority; it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness. The frightening result is a numbing detachment from others and a self-destructive disposition toward the world. Life without meaning, hope, and love breeds a coldhearted, mean-spirited outlook that destroys both the individual and others.

Black Existential Literature

The archetype of Black existentialist literature is one of the most revered and reviewed novels written by an African-American writer. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man presents examples of absurdism, anxiety and alienation.

The African-American writer who was the closest to the Sarterean existentialist movement was Richard Wright. Dismayed with his experience of American racism in the south, Wright sought refuge in a Parisian life. In France, he was heavily influenced by Les Temps modernes members Sartre, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty. The existential novels that he wrote after leaving the United States, such as The Outsider (Richard Wright), never received the high critical acclaim of his original two novels.

In retrospect, James Baldwin has been considered by others as a Black existentialist writer; however he was quite critical of Richard Wright and suspicious of his relationship with french intellectuals.cite article | author=James Baldwin | title= Alas, Poor Richard!| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=dsauteQRd7UC&pg=PA269&dq=Alas+Poor+Richard+Baldwin&ei=PTG7SO_WGoiQjgGV3Ki_Bw&sig=ACfU3U3xfRbD6QCd2T3xV3NfEUVeVOJeZg | work=The Price of the Ticket | date=1961 | accessdate=2008-08-31]

atre's Impact

ee Also

Double Consciousness

Tresconsciousness

Lewis Gordon

Cornel West

References

External Links

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=sUkmLQoyWTMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Existentia+Africana&sig=ACfU3U3kEvCxPiyl7lc5kMMM1lIBclVXWA Lewis Gordon's Existentia Africana]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=RUdSOv4MPboC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Existence+in+Black&sig=ACfU3U196V6Qx-AwbLpP--3iF3hP9IGtFQ Lewis Gordon's Existence in Black]