View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository SPECTERS AND SPOOKS: DEVELOPING A HAUNTOLOGY OF THE BLACK BODY Kashif Jerome Powell, MA A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Department of Communication Studies. Chapel Hill 2014 Approved by: Renee Alexander-Craft Ashley Lucas Della Pollock Alvaro Reyes Eric King Watts © 2014 Kashif Jerome Powell ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Kashif Jerome Powell: Specters and Spooks: Developing a Hauntology of The Black Body (Under the direction of Dr. Renee Alexander-Craft) This dissertation utilizes theories of embodiment and performance to develop a “hauntology of blackness,” which investigates imaginative sites of death constructed through the historical, social, and performative facets of institutional slavery in the United States to theorize notions of blackness and the black body. I argue that the relationship between the black body and death have conjured a death-driven specter that manifest historically, performatively, visually, and phenomenally as blackness. The rise and continual return of this “specter of blackness” positions the black body in the United States as a body “haunted” by its own biological and phenotypical disposition. Placing the theory of Jacques Derrida and Frantz Fanon in conversation with scholars such as Avery Gordon, Saidiya Hartman, Toni Morrison, and others, I evoke the language of haunting to consider the profound effect the relationship between the black body and death has had on ontological, psychoanalytic, and phenomenological understandings of blackness within post-modernity. iii To my mother and father, Kamaria, Kyi, K’ylah and Kameryn, my work beats with the eternal pulse of your love and inspiration. To my Renee and my mentors, you push me towards horizons I never knew existed. To Bryanne, I couldn’t have done this without you. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I was 9 years old, my mother urged me to memorize one of her favorite poems for the 3rd grade talent show: “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Wanting desperately to take home the first place prize, I memorized Kipling’s poem word for word. But on the day of the performance, I flailed in the limelight, stumbling over the words like upturned bricks. By the time I arrived home, my teeth and tongue were so tightly wound, I could barely speak. But I didn’t have to say a word, and neither did she. With the magic possessed only by a mother’s smile, she colored the horrors of my 9-year-old existence with the softest hues of compassion and love. Mom, everything I’ve done since that moment, every milestone I’ve reached, every failure I’ve managed to somehow transform into triumph, everything, has been because of that smile—thank you for coloring my world with its majesty. Thank you for always having faith in me, and for providing me with the means to have faith in myself. Now, after twenty-one years, I realize the gift you have given me; in the 3rd grade I stumbled over Kipling’s lyricism, now his words, articulated through a mother’s love, guide my every step. It was his words, found in the encouragement of mentors and colleagues, that has led me to the end of this arduous and rewarding journey: If you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you/If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you/ But make allowance for their doubting too…Dr. Renee Alexander-Craft, you are the most profound of mentors and muses, educators and life-coaches. Your unstinting mentorship has been instrumental in completing this work. But more than that, your guidance and boundless inspiration forms the foundation of my personal, artistic, and academic growth. Five years ago, v you told me to make my time at Carolina into the experience that I wanted. The truth: I didn’t know what I wanted, and even if I did, I didn’t know how to give it life. And so I watched as you stoked your academic and creative fires; you set classrooms, colloquia, and conferences ablaze with the force of your intellectual discipline and the generosity of your spirit. You inspire me to breathe life into every aspect of my art and scholarship. You challenge me to suspend both doubt and fear, daring me to trust myself: to live as if I am capable of becoming all that I want to be. Thank you for taking me on as a student, I am so proud to be a part of your linage. If you can dream—and not make dreams your master/If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim…Dr. Della Pollock, completing this project would have been impossible without the abundance of your mentorship and the grace of your patience, as well as the patience of your grace. When I was most weighted down by the gravity of it all, you uplifted me, showing me how to unwrap the gifts that are tucked away in the everyday—the buzz of communion on the steps of the new brewery in Durham, the charm of sharing coffee and time, the indulgence of a hug. Thank you for exposing the beauty in every moment. Joseph Megel, the hardest working man alive(!), you embody the truest form of dedication I have ever known. Watching you produce artistic works with a refined and nuanced mastery, I have learned how to take hold of my own art form. Thank you for teaching me how to fuel my imagination with discipline and a deep sense of truth to create worlds that exceed the prescriptions of knowledge—you are brilliant! Drs. Eric King Watts, Alavro Reyes, Ashley Lucas, and Lawrence Rosenfeld, thank you for inviting me into your offices, homes, and hearts. This project is driven by your insightful feedback, as well as your gracious offerings of space and time to rehearse its possibilities. Dr. Ebony Utley, I remember anxiously waiting outside your office during the final year of my Master’s degree. I planned to have a conversation about my culminating project, but to my vi surprise, we began entertaining the idea of earning a Ph.D. I didn’t think it was a possibility, but you did. Thank you for seeing in me what I would have never seen in myself; you are the reason for this moment. Dr. Ragan Fox, it was in your class that I was first introduced to the latent potentiality of the body in performance. Thank you for your encouragement and confidence to create and dream! Dr. Bryant Keith Alexander, I will forever hold you up as the ideal role model. I will continue to follow the light you create. Dr. Joanne Gilbert, I am still touched by the warmth of your smile, which continues to influence the way I move through the world. Dr. Judith Hamera, thank you for confidence, your invaluable insight, and for gifting me the opportunity to show the world my stuff! Mike Wiley, John Patrick, and Kathryn Hunter- Williams, you have given me the tools to grow as an artist, and by using them, I have become a better scholar and a fuller human being. Thank you for completing me. If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew/ To serve your turn long after they are gone/And so hold on when there is nothing in you/ Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on…Bryanne H. Young, you are the embodiment of Kipling’s Will. I am suspended in astonishment of your intellect and mesmerized by the tenacity with which you embrace life. You encourage me, compel me, to look past my limits to find myself in the next horizon; and when I do, I am there with you. My work and my life are richer because of you. Thank you for being there when my all is not enough; when there is nothing in me, you are the voice that whispers “Hold on”—thank you. If you can fill the unforgiving minute/With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run/Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it/And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! Mom, Dad, Kamaria, Kyi, K’lyah, and Kameryn, you are my life. Kamaria, I am inspired by the woman I call lil’ sis. I can only hope that as an artist and scholar, I grow into the immense compassion and vii! ! apt sensitivity you exude daily. Kyi, I am constantly refreshed by the humor with which you see life. K’lyah, you have a dazzling mind. I find so much inspiration in the vastness of your future. Kameryn, for such a little person, you have such a big heart; you are my creative muse. Dad, from you I have learned the value of life itself—why the minute can be unforgiving, and how to fill it with everything that matters. I love you with all that I have. And mom, you are my heart. I know that you are proud of the man your son has become, just as I know your love will continue to fill every minute of my life. Thank you. viii! ! TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF GRAPHS……………………………………..………………………………….……..xi PROLOGUE………………………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER 1: THE H(A)UNTING OF BLACKNESS, AN AMERICAN TRADITION………..6 Introduction and Primary Argument ……...……………..……..……...………………….6 Theory and Methods ……...……………..………………...……………………………...8 Personal and Social Rationale...……...…………………..………………………………18 Against The Black Body as a Universal Signifier: Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations......................................................................................................................23 Outline of Chapters ………...………………………………………………………....…29 CHAPTER 2: WHEN THE SPECTER SPOOKS: CONSTRUCTING BLACKNESS THROUGH A PERFORMATIVE HAUNTOLOGY OF DEATH…………………………………………...32 Specters: Haunting and the Metaphysics of Presence…………….……………………...32 Spooks: The Ecologies of Nonexistence in a Performative Hauntology of Death ...…...42 CHAPTER 3: THE