Genealogies of Capture and Evasion: A Radical Black Feminist Meditation for Neoliberal Times

Kelow-Bennett, Lydia Marie

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Year:: 2018
Contributor:: Kelow-Bennett, Lydia Marie (creator); Bogues, Anthony (Reader); Guterl, Matthew (Advisor); Hamlin, Françoise (Reader); Brown University. Department of Africana Studies (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Neoliberalism; Black Feminism; Black popular culture; Black radical thought; Black feminist literature; Post-civil rights era
Extent:: xii, 241 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26300/veew-p227

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Abstract:: Genealogies of Capture and Evasion: A Black Feminist Meditation for Neoliberal Times is a genealogy, reassessment and critique of the inheritances and investments of present day U.S. Black feminism, in the context of neoliberalism. The project traces the effects of academic institutionalization, popular culture critique, and political assimilation on the long and varied traditions of U.S. Black feminism over the latter half of the 20th century, into the present day. This interdisciplinary work uses close readings of popular texts, critical theory, and literary analysis to examine the emergence of U.S. Black feminist thought as an academic field, as well as the ideological shifts occurring in U.S. Black feminisms from 1968 to the present. I delineate the societal, political and intellectual contexts that Black feminists in the post-Civil Rights era navigate as they labor to create new possibilities for life under ever-changing forms of racial, gender, and economic violence. I argue that radical elements of Black feminist thought, including queer, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist Black feminisms, have been pushed to the margins as Black feminism becomes a more visible—and marketable—discourse in mainstream U.S. culture. Yet, these radical elements constitute critical interventions of Black feminist thought and praxis to Black liberation struggles. This project addresses itself to the capture of Black feminist thought in the present under hegemonic forms of violence, and reconfigures critical questions about Black liberation struggles in the 21st century. By framing this genealogy as a “prophetic” intervention from the past, but intended for this time, I place radical Black feminists from the 1970s in conversation with present-day Black feminist thinkers to elucidate the limits of what I call popular neoliberal Black feminism.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2018

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Rights: In Copyright
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Kelow-Bennett, Lydia Marie, "Genealogies of Capture and Evasion: A Radical Black Feminist Meditation for Neoliberal Times" (2018). Africana Studies Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/veew-p227

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Africana Studies Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Africana Studies department.
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