The Metaphysical Possibilities of Post-Black Film and Visual Culture
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication Fall 12-7-2012 Phenomenal Bodies: The Metaphysical Possibilities of Post-Black Film and Visual Culture Michele P. Beverly Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Recommended Citation Beverly, Michele P., "Phenomenal Bodies: The Metaphysical Possibilities of Post-Black Film and Visual Culture." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/37 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PHENOMENAL BODIES: THE METAPHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF POST-BLACK FILM AND VISUAL CULTURE by MICHELE PRETTYMAN BEVERLY ABSTRACT In recent years, film, art, new media, and music video works created by black makers have demonstrated an increasingly “post-black” impulse. The term “post-black” was originally coined in response to innovative practices and works created by a generation of black artists who were shaped by hip-hop culture and Afro-modernist thinking. I use the term as a theoretical tool to discuss what lies beyond the racial character of a work, image, or body. Using a post-black theoretical methodology I examine a range of works by black filmmakers Kathleen Collins Prettyman and Lee Daniels, visual artists Wangechi Mutu and Jean-Michel Basquiat, new media artist Nettrice Gaskins, and music video works of hip-hop artists and performer Erykah Badu. I discuss how black artists and filmmakers have moved through Darby English’s notion of “black representational space” as a sphere where bodies and works are beholden to specific historical and aesthetic expectations and limitations. I posit that black representational space has been challenged by what I describe as “metaphysical space” where bodies produce a new set of possibilities as procreative, fluid, liberated, and otherworldly forces. These bodies are neither positive nor negative; instead they occupy the in-between spaces between life and death, time and space, digital and analog, interiority and exteriority, vulnerability and empowerment. Post- black visual culture displays the capacities of black bodies as creative forces that shape how we see and experience visual culture. My methodology employs textual analysis of visual objects that articulate a post-black impulse, paying close attention to how these works compel viewers to see other dimensions of experience. In three chapters I draw from theoretical work in race and visuality, affect theory, phenomenology, and interiority from the likes of Charles Johnson, Frantz Fanon, Elena del Río, Sara Ahmed, Saidiya Hartman, and Elizabeth Alexander. This study aims to create an interdisciplinary analysis that charts new directions for exploring and re-imaging black bodies as subjects and objects of endless knowledge and creative potential. INDEX WORDS: Blackness, Post-black, Race, Cinema, Visual culture, Black cinema, Media, Black film, Hip-hop, African American culture, African American film, African American cinema, Affect, African American film history, Kathleen Collins Prettyman PHENOMENAL BODIES: THE METAPHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF POST-BLACK FILM AND VISUAL CULTURE by MICHELE PRETTYMAN BEVERLY A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 Copyright by Michele Prettyman Beverly 2012 PHENOMENAL BODIES: THE METAPHYSICAL POSSIBILITIES OF POST-BLACK FILM AND VISUAL CULTURE by MICHELE PRETTYMAN BEVERLY Committee Chair: Alessandra Raengo Committee: Jennifer Barker Eddie Chambers Angelo Restivo Greg Smith Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2012 iv DEDICATION I dedicate this project to Micah, Maya, Jacob and James whom I love deeply and who walked this journey with me and to the late Kathleen Collins Prettyman who continues to inspire me. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank the spirit of God that guides my life and my family and friends who have helped me through this process. It is with your love and support that this journey has been pos- sible. This includes Micah, Maya, Jacob, James, Mom, Dad, Terri, Alvin, Kimmy, Asad, Syd ney, Kayla, Momma, Aunt Fern, Maiesha, Mekyah, and countless other supporters. I want to thank each committee member for their unflagging support, encouragement and commitment: Dr. Barker for her time and careful attention to detail, Dr. Restivo for his cutting edge insights and his uncanny ability to always seem to understand what I am thinking, for Dr. Smith for al- ways making room for my growth and giving me much to think about. Thanks to Dr. Eddie Chambers for his warmth, and openness and to Dr. Mark Anthony Neal for his time, energy and insight. Special thanks and eternal gratitude to Dr. Alessandra Raengo who is a mentor, friend and without whom none of this would be possible. You commitment and dedication have transcended the role of an advisor and have enhanced my intellectual development immeasurably. Thanks also to the administrative faculty and staff of Georgia State’s Department of Communication, including Dr. David Cheshier, the graduate committee, Tawanna Tookes, Diane Sealey, Marilyn Stiggers, Gary Fessenden, Kendra Woodard and Juana Leary—each of whom has always gone the extra mile for me. Thanks also to John Baker Brown, Tonia East, Rondee Gaines, Drew Ayers, Karen Petruska, Kris Cannon, and Tami Morris for your support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 A Brief History of “Post-Black” .............................................................................. 10 Post-Black and the Black Arts Movement .............................................................. 19 The Challenges of Representation ........................................................................... 25 From Post- Black to Metaphysical Space ................................................................ 29 Black Audiences, Film, and Public Discourse ......................................................... 33 CHAPTER 1: LOSING GROUND AND FILMMAKER KATHLEEN COLLINS PRETTYMAN ......................................................................................................................... 39 Collins Prettyman and Black Independent Cinema ............................................... 48 Collins Prettyman and Post-Black Cinema ............................................................. 61 Affect Theory and Black Bodies .............................................................................. 73 Art, Performance, and Affective Expression .......................................................... 82 Representation and Post-Blackness ......................................................................... 91 CHAPTER 2: “MADE YOU LOOK!”: ..................................................................... 98 EMBODIMENT AND INITIATION IN HIP-HOP VISUAL CULTURE ................ 98 Trauma, Subject Formation, and Metaphysical Space ........................................ 105 Decoding ................................................................................................................. 109 Bodies, Graffiti, and Urban Space ......................................................................... 116 Birth, Initiation, and Visuality .............................................................................. 125 Basquiat’s Visual Universe .................................................................................... 138 vii Basquiat and Post-Blackness ................................................................................. 147 David Blaine: Impossible Bodies ........................................................................... 154 CHAPTER 3: RE-IMAGINING BLACK BODIES IN CONTEMPORARY VISUAL CULTURE ............................................................................................................. 162 Reimagining the Female Body ............................................................................... 165 The Work of Nettrice Gaskins ............................................................................... 175 Baduisms ................................................................................................................ 186 Shadowboxer: Cinema Beyond Black Representational Space ............................ 201 CONCLUSION: POST-BLACK TO THE FUTURE .............................................. 222 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................ 231 viii ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Decoded book cover…………………………………………………………...110 Figure 2.2 Charlotte St. in the South Bronx, Neal Boenzi, The New York Times, 1975… 117 Figure 2.3 Lexington Ave. train, artist Lee Quinones, Photo: Eric Felisbret, The New York Times……………………………………………………………………………118