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The Paradox of /ˈnɪɡə/: Ex·Cite·Able Acts, Ex·Cess·Able Moments

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The Paradox of /ˈnɪɡə/: Ex·Cite·Able Acts, Ex·Cess·Able Moments The Paradox of /ˈnɪɡə/: Ex·cite·able Acts, Ex·cess·able Moments Joyce Annette Maxwell Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2021 © 2021 Joyce Annette Maxwell All Rights Reserved Abstract The Paradox of /ˈnɪɡə/: Ex·cite·able Acts, Ex·cess·able Moments Joyce Annette Maxwell As a historically racialized utterance, nigger has been a contested and despised word since the late 17th Century. Now, in the 21st Century, nigga is still considered one of the most impactful words in the English lexicon. This dissertation provides one situated and contingent analysis of nigga as a moment of excess in the Higher Education classroom. I wed Judith Butler’s theorizing of ex-citable speech via her analyses of J.L. Austin’s influential conceptualizations of speech acts and Louis Althusser’s interpellation to Henry Louis Gates’ theory of Signifyin(g) in order to interrogate the multitudinous articulations and appropriations of nigga as a Signifyin(g) performative. Through my theorizing of nigger-nigga as a Signifyin(g) performative, I interrogate the continuity and discontinuity of use specific to the English Composition and Literature classroom, as well as within multiple Higher Education classrooms and discussions. I interrogate use through the methodology of what I classify as Foucauldian-lite Discourse Analysis, in order to examine nigger and nigga as ex-citable speech. My intention is to interrogate how these utterances inflect and influence constructions of multiply conflicting and complimentary histories, identities, subjectivities and power relationships of professors and students in visible and invisible ways. The Untitled Supplemental Image is a metaphor for my methodology. The image is of my mother’s hands, which a woven throughout the dissertation, symbolically represents my memory of the first time I heard the utterance nigger. i Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... vi Dedication .................................................................................................................................... viii Preface............................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Nigga Event #19022019: “Niggas Ain’t Shit”.................................................................... 23 Chapter 2: Signs, Signifiers & Signifyin(g).................................................................................. 32 2.1 The Transatlantic Passage of the Signifying Monkey ........................................................ 44 2.2 Nigger artifact 1957/2018: Nigger v. nigger, Signifyin(g) at work .................................... 54 Hoodie (a haiku interlude) ............................................................................................................ 59 Chapter 3: from Signifyin(g) to post-Signifyin(g), the DimenSions of Language ....................... 60 3.1 Nigga artifact 04302016: The Intersection(s) of BVE/SBAE/SAE.................................... 76 Chapter 4: from post-Signifyin(g) to poststructural Signifyin(g): Ruptures, Disruptions and Semantic Looping ......................................................................................................................... 91 4.1 The Speaker is not the Doer of the Deed: Butler’s Critique of J.L. Austin ........................ 93 4.2 A Failed Interpellation: Butler’s Critique of Louis Althusser .......................................... 100 4.3 Semantic Looping and the Reinvention of nigga ............................................................. 106 4.4 The Tesseract-Effect: An Incomplete, (Im)Possible 4th Dimension ................................. 110 ii 4.5 Nigga Event #03242015: “Cuz I’m that Bigger” nigga as Signifyin(g) performative or “a strange scene of love” ............................................................................................................. 114 Chapter 5: The Post-Colonial Nigger ......................................................................................... 136 Chapter 6: Mappings, or A Word about Methodology and Hands ............................................. 144 6.1 Data: The Fingers.............................................................................................................. 155 Experience and Rememory ................................................................................................. 155 Observations........................................................................................................................ 156 Classroom Visits ................................................................................................................. 157 6.2 Methods: The Palm ........................................................................................................... 159 Writing as Method .............................................................................................................. 159 A Comment on Reflexivity ................................................................................................. 160 Excavation of Nigga Artifacts............................................................................................. 165 6.3 Methodology: The Hand ................................................................................................... 167 Chapter 7: The Psychic Space of the Classroom: A Word [against, in, about, of] White Space 176 7.1 Psychic Whiteness in the Comp-Lit Classroom................................................................ 184 7.2 The Racialization of English............................................................................................. 186 7.3 Critical Conversation #17032014: An excessive nigga moment in-the-making: The disruption of psychic whiteness .............................................................................................. 195 Chapter 8: To Teach or not to Teach… A Truly American Word in a Truly American Institution ..................................................................................................................................................... 209 8.1 Critical Conversation #27022019: Homey in three parts “There’s a White Racist Inside of Me”.......................................................................................................................................... 234 iii Part 1 ................................................................................................................................... 234 Part 2 ................................................................................................................................... 236 Part 3 ................................................................................................................................... 238 Part 1(a)............................................................................................................................... 241 Part 2(a)............................................................................................................................... 242 Part 3(a)............................................................................................................................... 249 Chapter 9: The Polysemy of nigga: A Most Contagious Word.................................................. 253 9.1 Nigga Instance #26102015: Miiiiisssssss: Nigga and the Paradox of Respect................. 253 9.2 Nigga Instance #09042015: Giving nigga Space.............................................................. 256 9.3 Nigga Instance #14022019: Black language, Haitian sensibilities: What about this nwa? ................................................................................................................................................. 259 9.4 Nigga Instance #28102015: I need an ‘A’ nigga .............................................................. 263 9.5 Nigga Instance #280520: They’re not Black, they’re African.......................................... 263 9.6 Nigga Instance #12022015: Nigga and the politics of respectability ............................... 265 9.7 Nigga Instance #12022016:What a small white world ..................................................... 268 9.8 Instance #062019: What am I missying? The Missy Moment ......................................... 270 Chapter 10: A Final (but not complete) Conclusion: A word about… Words ........................... 276 Epilogue ...................................................................................................................................... 296 References ................................................................................................................................... 300 Appendix A: Further Reading..................................................................................................... 311 iv List of Figures Figure 1 X-Y Saussurean Linguistic Axis .................................................................................... 38 Figure 2 Visual
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