I Stay Black and Die: on Melancholy and Genius by I. Augustus Durham
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Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius by I. Augustus Durham Department of English Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Tsitsi Jaji, Supervisor ___________________________ Maurice Wallace ___________________________ Nathaniel Mackey ___________________________ Priscilla Wald Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 i v ABSTRACT Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius by I. Augustus Durham Department of English Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Tsitsi Jaji, Supervisor ___________________________ Maurice Wallace ___________________________ Nathaniel Mackey ___________________________ Priscilla Wald An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 i v Copyright by I. Augustus Durham 2018 Abstract This dissertation draws on Sigmund Freud’s essay “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917) to track melancholy and genius in black letters, culture, and history from the nineteenth century to the contemporary moment; it contends that melancholy is a catalyst for genius, and that genius is a signifier of the maternal. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Freud prefigures an array of discourses in black studies; one mode of interrogation occurs with relation to his aforementioned essay. Some African American literature, such as Richard Wright’s Black Boy, invokes this work indirectly, just as theoretical texts, like Joseph Winters’s Hope Draped in Black: Race, Melancholy, and the Agony of Progress, have direct engagement. Nevertheless, Freud’s attendance to mourning and melancholia is pertinent. He surmises that when the love object dies, mourning does the reparative work of suturing the ego back together after its splitting and impoverishment; melancholia, by contrast, is the “pathological disposition” which occasions such disrepair and instantiates itself through the psychic loss of the love object. In turn, melancholy carries the possibility of devolving into mania such that the one experiencing the psychic loss desires to inflict harm on, while simultaneously becoming, the love object; theorists generally assign this category to the mother. I assert that Freud’s diagnosis of mania reifies long-held and iv reductive designations when applied to blackness and maternity. My intervention stages a correlation and counterpoint to the above theorizations. Through dissertation chapters in which an overarching thematic juxtaposes itself with each subject of inquiry, I contend that instead of melancholy catalyzing mania—a rendering of the “pathological” for the people in which the dissertation has its investments—, the affect fosters performances of excellence, given the shorthand “genius”. As a form of expression and interpretation in black thought writ large, genius emerges as a response to and in excess of one’s melancholy. This productivity concretizes that genius, not mania, is an affective vestige that is at once reducible and irreducible to the mother; and allows me to journey on a search for her, in myriad iterations, to discover a subject found as opposed to an object lost. v Dedication To Daniel and Maxine, objects that were never lost to me; and Imri, the subject who found me. vi Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... vi Contents ........................................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ viii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 1: Read | Frederick ....................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 2: Travel | Ralph ........................................................................................................ 131 Chapter 3: Man | Marvin ......................................................................................................... 193 Chapter 4: Woman | Octavia ................................................................................................... 254 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 320 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 346 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 377 vii List of Figures Figure 1: Frontispiece of Frederick Douglass, 1855 ................................................................ 64 Figure 2: Image of Ramses the Great, 1843 .............................................................................. 69 Figure 3: An Original Art of Manliness Comic: Frederick Douglass--How a Slave Was Made a Man, 2013 ...................................................................................................................... 104 Figure 4: The cover of Yasiin Gaye: The Departure (Side One), 2014 ................................... 209 Figure 5: The cover of Yasiin Gaye: The Return (Side Two), 2014 ........................................ 209 viii Acknowledgments For such a peculiar genre, I want to break with some traditions in writing this so here it goes: I want to thank my Creator for my soul; and me, insofar as people often underestimate how difficult it is to live with yourself and the decisions, good or ill, you make so I am, somehow, proud of you; and Maxine and Daniel, who gave me culture and a door to a world outside of Court Street, even if that world was created beside a piano in the living room or a bookshelf in a bedroom with religious and theological texts on the same row as an anthology for Afro-American Literature or in a den with painted red walls where the Motown 25 videotape played in heavy rotation alongside karate movies and Disney and films inappropriate for a child of my age to view; and Phoebe, Tabitha and Simeon, also known as Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail—Peter loves you—; and my grandparents, Agnes and Senna and Edna and Edwin and John L. who pieced together a life that was fuller than their own dreams could muster; and my extended family, Tia and Floyd and Michael and Tonya and Corwin and Gabrielle and Dexter and Cal and Willa, who singlehandedly kept me fed these past 5+ years, and Pat and Johnny and Michael and Leo and Angela and J Jasper and Terri; and my Duke English 2012 cohort; and Maryscot and Monika and Catherine; and my teachers, Connie and Konthath and Eera and Valerie and Marc and Thadious and Nelson and Mary and ix Audrey and Yolanda and Mark and Cleophus and Luke and the late Donald and Charles and Stacy and Jan and Chester and Rey and Wahneema and Maureen and Ian and Karla and Antonio and J Kameron and Kathy and Ranjana and Robyn and Fred; and my interlocutors, Julianne and Ceymil and Joseph and Michaeline and Jasmine and Tommy and Regina and P Khalil and Kinohi and Jessica and Priscilla and Patrick and Natalie; and my mentors, Mark and Margo and Alex; and my dissertation committee, Tsitsi and Maurice and Nathaniel and Priscilla; and my fellow journeypeople, Sophia and Matt and Aissa and Carminia and Tiffany and Amber and Amara and Shawn and Ewurama and Mitchell and Stefanie and Nicole and Chidinma and Crystal and Gabrielle and Jared and Rachel and Andre and Mikal and Jon and Petal and Janée and Naima and La Wanda and Regina and Whitney and Shirley and Anthony and Andrew and Ronell and Andrew and Michelle and Liam and Susan and Khwezi and Julius and Gloria and Danielle and Nura and Shontea and Karen Jean and Kenya and StacyNicole and Camille and Archana and Alisha and Renée and Matt and Jackie and Ben and Patrick and Brenna and Kita and Jessica and Chris and Marina and Sasha and Nikolas and Jessica and Lindsey and Mary Caton and Sonia and Reggie and John and Jessica and Oluwatomisin and José and Anastasia and David and Danielle and Amanda and Chase and Matt and Ayanna and Shannan and Daniel and Cameron and Thomas and Roxanne and Will and Darren and Bobby and Eldrin and Eddie; and Imri, my best thing; and . x Introduction How Blue Is Your Black(ness)? melancholy, n. 1. Ill temper, sullenness, brooding, anger. Obs. 2. a. Black bile, one of the four chief fluids of cardinal humours recognized by ancient and medieval physiologists . Formerly also called choler adust. Now hist. b. Med. Originally: a pathological condition thought to result from an excess of black bile in the body, characterized in early references by sullenness, ill temper, brooding, causeless anger, and unsociability, and later by despondency and sadness. Later: severe depression,