This unorthodox account of 1960s Black thought rigorously details the
field's debts to German critical theory and explores a forgotten
tradition of Black singularity.
Phenomenal Blackness examines the changing interdisciplinary
investments of key mid-century Black writers and thinkers, including the
growing interest in German philosophy and critical theory. Mark
Christian Thompson analyzes this shift in intellectual focus across the
post-war decades, placing Black Power thought in a philosophical
context.
Prior to the 1960s, sociologically oriented thinkers such as W. E. B. Du
Bois had understood Blackness as a singular set of socio-historical
characteristics. In contrast, writers such as Amiri Baraka, James
Baldwin, Angela Y. Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and Malcolm X were drawn to
notions of an African essence, an ontology of Black being. With these
perspectives, literary language came to be seen as the primary social
expression of Blackness. For this new way of thinking, the works of
philosophers such as Adorno, Habermas, and Marcuse were a vital
resource, allowing for continued cultural-materialist analysis while
accommodating the hermeneutical aspects of Black religious thought.
Thompson argues that these efforts to reimagine Black singularity led to
a phenomenological understanding of Blackness--a "Black aesthetic
dimension" wherein aspirational models for Black liberation might
emerge.
