Cornel West Research Articles

Keynote Introduction for Robert Farris Thompson

Keynote Introduction for Robert Farris Thompson Shona N. Jackson (bio) It is my pleasure this evening to introduce our closing Keynote speaker, Robert Farris Thompson. But I have to begin by asking: “Who is Robert Farris Thompson?” and “Why do you need to know this?” That is actually how the foreword to his book Tango: The Art History of Love begins. Cornel West has described him as “one of the greatest pioneers in the study of Afro-American culture and African culture” (qtd. in Shufro). He’s also been credited with charting a whole new way of addressing the continent of Africa in terms of its visual forms. But this is insufficient. He reminds us of something. When in 1939 Aimé Césaire writes in “Notebook of a Return to a Native Land” “not an inch of this world devoid of my fingerprint”: He reminds us of this. He dares to remind us of this when in book after book, lecture after lecture, he turns Africa into (and this is to borrow from Katherine Coryton White), a “verb.” A verb that articulates the world. He does this when he asks his students in lectures: “How do black musicians manage to do this? How do they manage to conquer the whole planet?” He does this when in his work on Tango, he rescues Tango from the white North American’s attempt to reconnect with self and love through Tango from Al Pacino to Robert Duvall, when he challenges us to instead see the black hand, heart, body, and mind that shapes this beat. He does this when he says “All Latin American dances have Afro roots.” He has been doing this since, as he says, he realized it was a “stupid” idea to be a lawyer and an Afro Cuban scholar. And here if you’ll indulge me I’ll actually quote from him: My only memories of Law school are mambo memories. I remember the last day singing in the shower knowing a friend of mine was going to drive me from Charlottesville from the University of Virginia Law School all the way to the Palladium. We got to the Palladium and Tito Puente saw me and he waved and I felt vindicated. Then I wrote a letter to this professor that I’d worked with in Andean Art History and asked if I could study under him. Luckily, there was a slot open and boom I got in. Then, he wanted me to work in Andean Art History but after six months I couldn’t live a lie. I told him “I have to work with the Yoruba. Because why? Because they are one of the cultures that feed heavily the formation of Mambo.” (Thompson) Choosing to follow the academic path laid out for him by Tito Puente and a gesture, Robert Farris Thompson was off and has been publishing continuously since 1958 on music, dance, art, and religion from Africa to Brazil. In his study of African expressive cultures and societies, he has traced a philosophy of the body that encompasses textile production, [End Page 997] dance, movement, sound, and gesture. He has redefined theory as improvisation. He has done this in book after book. Black Gods and Kings, African Art in Motion, The Four Moments of the Sun: Congo Art in Two Worlds, and the seminal Flash of the Spirit, where he traces Yoruba, Fon, Bakongo, and other aesthetic traditions in the New World. He’s done this in the face of the gods, and will do so in the forthcoming aesthetic of The Cool: Afro Atlantic Art and Music. And I apologize, I’m fairly sure that before I am done with this introduction he will have published another book so this is necessarily incomplete. He has also curated exhibitions of African and African American Art in any number of venues but most prominently, The National Gallery of Art. His work has been translated into French, German, Flemish, and Portuguese. He himself knows Spanish, Yoruba, Kikongo, French, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Italian. He’s won numerous awards, including the leadership award of the Arts Council of the United States African Studies Association. He’s won the College...

Unexpected Parallels: Commonalities between Native American and Outsider Arts

Unexpected Parallels:Commonalities between Native American and Outsider Arts Dyani Reynolds-White Hawk (bio) "Otherances" tell more about the social and historical fantasies of the describers than about the people thus described. —Paul Arnett, "An Introduction to Other Rivers" The fields of outsider art and Native American art, when compared with each other, provide discerning critiques of the ways that mainstream art institutions and their constituents tend to treat groups that have not historically been equal participants in the makeup of Western art history.1 By mainstream institutions, I am referring largely to museums, galleries, and the academy that construct the prevailing value systems of the Western art world referenced as dominant in terms of power and prestige. My intent is to provide a broad analysis that complicates prevailing ideas about Native and outsider art in relationship to fine arts as a framework of reference. The comparative analysis of these polar fields will seek to identify repetitive behaviors of the mainstream art world in dealing with marginalized groups. Through the identification of similar patterns of treatment, we are able to reach an educated understanding of mainstream value systems applied to groups considered "other." [End Page 47] While my arguments may appear ambitious or overly generalized in terms of scope, I argue that a critical analysis of how Native and outsider arts are received has not to date been pursued in the literature.2 Thus my explorations of these intersections may serve to introduce this comparative platform for consideration by future scholars engaging in specific case study analyses. My aim is to introduce readers to the complexities of outsider and Native arts reception, and to likewise assist viewers and artists in being equipped to tackle difficult issues such as race and bias while negotiating relationships between the peripheral and center in various arts worlds. As an artist and as a Native American trained in the higher education system, I am inescapably engaged in the challenging relationship between the fine art world and the Native American art world. In this essay, I am seeking to extract core issues and find evidence of some of the larger challenges that are presented in this relationship of Native Americans and the academy. The African American theologian Cornel West has stated, "I'm as much concerned with how we understand modernity and the dominant culture as with the African-American experience."3 This statement parallels the motivations of this investigation, that through an understanding of the values of the mainstream art world, a greater understanding of self and community in relation to this entity can occur. Establishing Foundational Characteristics and Differences of Native American and Outsider Arts The world of outsider arts, also referred to as self-taught, folk, or vernacular arts, is defined by the characteristics of its makers. It is not restricted to a particular geographic location, race, or national heritage. The artist's primary attribute is defined as a lack of formal training or credentials. Along with this lack of formal training, there is a perceived lack of influence by the field of art history and mainstream communities. Outsider arts are therefore perceived as pure, unadulterated, individualistic forms of innate expression, often falling into various classifications such as rural, poor, less educated, mentally ill or unstable, prisoners, homeless, or any variety of other combinations that socially set them apart from the median. Their otherness is "based more on sociological and psychological factors that are held together principally by commonly made claims by Outsider Art's apologists. . . . This difference is not merely marked by exclusion from the mainstream of the professional (western) art world, but also by exclusion from, or marginalization in relation to, the very culture that supports the market for mainstream art."4 Thus, by the nature of its qualifications, outsider art [End Page 48] can be practiced by anyone fitting the outsider criteria of any race, in any country. Although outsider art is not ethnically based, because of its focus on the biography of its makers, the field has been linked to the category of identity art. Native American art, like that of any other culturally specific group, is similarly defined by the characteristics of the artist. Identity lies at the...

Left Matters: An Interview with Cornel West

February 28, 2011 John Ehrenberg (JE): Let's start with a couple of things that may have begun to reshape the political climate. One is this extraordinary upsurge of popular energy and democratic f...

The linguistic-pragmatic turn in the history of philosophy

Abstract Did the pragmatic turn encompass the linguistic turn in the history of philosophy? Or was the linguistic turn a turn away from pragmatism? Some commentators identify the so-called “eclipse” of pragmatism by analytic philosophy, especially during the Cold War era, as a turn away from pragmatist thinking. However, the historical evidence suggests that this narrative is little more than a myth. Pragmatism persisted, transforming into a more analytic variety under the influence of Quine and Putnam and, more recently, a continental version in the hands of Richard Rorty and Cornel West. In this paper, I argue that proof of the linguistic turn’s presence as a moment in a broader pragmatic turn in philosophy can be garnered from close examination of a single article, W. V. O. Quine’s “Two Dogmas of Empiricism,” and a single issue: whether the analytic-synthetic distinction is philosophically defensible.

Que(e)rying “My Man Bovanne”

In his 1985 essay “The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual,” Cornel West argues for what he calls the insurgency model of Black intellectual activity. This model “builds upon, yet goes beyond” three ...

Disrupting the Ethical Imperatives of “Junior” Critical Qualitative Scholars in the Era of Conservative Modernization

In this article, we wrestle with the core issue of how early career researchers translate central tenets and core concepts of critical theory and critical methodology into their research practice. By way of creative representation, we draw from bell hooks and Cornel West’s (1991) written rendition of their verbal dialogue in Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life. Their hope was to offer the book in a dialogic format in such a way that mirrored the synergy in their verbal discussions as friends and intellectual colleagues. In a similar vein, we hope to share with readers the synergy and depth of the narratives that have transpired during our ongoing discussions on the important topic of critical praxis as part of a collaborative research group called the Disruptive Dialogue Project (Gildersleeve, Kuntz, Pasque & Carducci, 2010; Kuntz, Pasque, Carducci, & Gildersleeve, 2009).

Cornel West, biblical transparency, and American historical amnesia

The Old Testament writers often evince a willingness to tell the truth about the past even when the purpose for doing so is either not immediately clear or seemingly counterproductive. I will suggest that such transparency has a theological significance for people today. I then move to the work of Cornel West who has called for a reversal of American historical amnesia, the widespread tendency in America to evade the difficult episodes of our nation’s past. So this article combines the biblical testimony about Israel’s infelicitous past with the contemporary call to apply that same transparent introspection within American culture.

Mendieta, Eduardo and Jonathan Vanantwerpen eds., The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere

hinking about religion in the public sphere is timely. The Arab Spring and the political turmoil in countries from Algeria to Bahrain give a new actuality to the question of the role of religion in the sphere of public deliberation. In this time of political transformation, questions arise about which role religion should play in the newly democratized countries of the Middle East. How does religion play out in public discussion and is represented in the newly drafted constitutions? Along with the crucial notion of civil society, the public sphere—as a sphere beyond family, state, and economy—is understood as the discursive infrastructure of a democratic society. The publication of the prominently casted volume, The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere in early 2011, bringing together the talks given at a conference in New York in October 2009, explores this renewed actuality. The four participants in this public discussion — Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Judith Butler, and Cornel West — are not only philosophers that leaped beyond their discipline, they are also paradigmatic models of public intellectuals. The volume consists of the papers of these four philosophers, the reprinted discussion between them and an afterword by Craig Calhoun. Jurgen Habermas, in his opening paper, sets the stage in two regards: his seminal study, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989), still serves as the focal point of all discussions on the public spheres, and his recent turn towards religion as a moral resource for secular societies make him the paradigmatic expert in the field. His contribution challenges the notion of “the political” suggested by Carl Schmitt as a solution to the increasingly socially differentiated society with its technocratic momentum. However, to restore “the political” as the legitimating source of authority in the form of an authoritative figure is no longer akin to a secular, pluralist society. Habermas takes side with a Rawlsian model of liberal democracy and shares his demand for a translation of religious arguments into secular language. Habermas ends on the importance of this translation process and the use of religion as moral resource for secular societies.

Marxism, Memory, and the Black Radical Tradition: Introduction to Volume 13

Black political culture in the United States during the 19th century was divided between integrationist and black nationalist ideology. Following Reconstruction, however, a third political tradition emerged, Black Radicalism. This intellectual tradition was characterized by sharp opposition to institutional racism, class inequality, and women's oppression. The chief architect of early Black Radicalism was W.E.B. Du Bois. In subsequent generations of Black Radicals, key figures included C.L.R. James, Hubert H. Harrison, A. Philip Randolph, and Oliver Cromwell-Cox. Most of these intellectuals had a relationship to socialist or Marxism political organizations parties. The article traces three generations of Black Radicals who emerged following World War II. The first of these generations emerged during the Civil Rights and Black Power periods, and included Amiri Baraka, Walter Rodney, and James Baldwin. The second generation, women and men born between 1946 and 1964, prominently include Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Lani Guinier, Patricia Williams, and Charles Ogletree. Finally, the hip-hop culture of the late 20th century produced a new school of activist intellectuals, such as Robin D.G. Kelley and Melissa Harris-Lacewell. These generations of Black Radicals are connected by the memory of resistance to racism and to the integration of gender race and class in their analysis. What is unsolved is whether this radical tradition will continue in the age of globalized capitalism.

What Child Is This?: Closely Reading Collectivity and Queer Childrearing in Lackawanna Blues and Noah’s Arc

What Child Is This?: Closely Reading Collectivity and Queer Childrearing in Lackawanna Blues and Noah’s Arc Vincent Stephens (bio) Collectivity is a deeply embedded strategy in African American culture that has historically functioned as a response to challenging social and economic conditions. From the mid- to late twentieth century and beyond, African American “families of choice”—intimate associations of biological and nonblood relatives cohabiting and sharing household responsibilities—have been a primary mode of collectivity that has challenged the hegemony of the heterosexual nuclear family. The nuclear structure’s preeminence as an exemplar of U. S. affiliative ideals belies the postwar economic and racial biases that limited its material accessibility, engineered the failure of such structures to foster stability and health, and obscures the functionality of other household models. Renewed critical attention to the alternative modes of kinship African Americans have cultivated is essential to understanding how diverse households provide emotional and material sustenance. “What Child is This” examines two cultural depictions of African American “families of choice” in order to challenge two modes of white sexual normativity. First, my reading of the “othermothering” and “exchange relationships” represented in the autobiographical telefilm Lackawanna Blues challenges white heteronormative logic that black conformity to the nuclear family will resolve racialized economic and social gaps. Second, my reading of same-sex couple parenting in the series Noah’s Arc is a rejoinder to “queer negativity,” a white homonormative strain of queer theory opposed to various forms of sociality but lacking critical attention to the historically subversive role of alternative kinship structures for African Americans. Both readings address the devotion of nonbiological adults to child figures within these families and elucidate the enduring utility of extended family households as unique nexuses of care for African American adults and children. Conceptualizing Collectivity Cornel West’s provocative statement on the value of “black culture” warrants close critical scrutiny for its encapsulation of collectivity’s symbolic utility for African Americans: The genius of our black foremothers and forefathers was to create powerful buffers to ward off the nihilistic threat, to equip black folk with cultural armor to beat back the demons of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and lovelessness. These buffers consisted of cultural structures of meaning and feeling that created and sustained communities; this armor constituted ways of life and struggle that embodied values of service and sacrifice, love and care, discipline and excellence. In other words, traditions for black surviving and thriving under usually adverse New World conditions were major barriers against the nihilistic threat. (40) [End Page 235] This excerpt’s ideological essence could be interpreted either as a nationalist statement rife with essentialist presumptions or as a benign statement of cultural pride. I read it as an acknowledgement of the psychological and behavioral toll of white supremacy, racism and class subordination. West places African American “counterpublic” formations, generated by African Americans for their sustenance as integral to “African American identity” and acknowledges the “linked fate” of blacks, tied to a shared national experience. Significantly, the quotation does not imply that all blacks have or have had an interchangeable experience; there is room for variance. The compelling subtext of his statement is that black racial pride is not benign or ornamental but the embodiment of the specificity and urgency of institution-building among African Americans. The import of his statement here is significant, since the social gaps and the resultant psychological nihilism he addresses in the larger article remain integral to African American life. Communal values, particularly “service and sacrifice, love and care,” are important because African Americans have generated traditions worth acknowledging as a heritage. Understanding community in terms of the intimate relations formed through erotic relationships, friendships and living arrangements localizes and grounds community. The United States is arguably transitioning from traditional to modern and postmodern intimacies, and a hallmark of this transition is a social recognition of the pluralized ways people form and sustain intimate relations (Plummer 8–9). This transition raises important questions about the ways certain intimate relations are socially valued over others. The heterosexual nuclear family comprised of a man and woman who divide gender roles and reproduce has been the central social ideal of intimate relationships since the post...

From “Public Archaeologist” to “Public Intellectual”: Seeking Engagement Opportunities Outside Traditional Archaeological Arenas

Cornel West has said that the role of the intellectual is to try to turn easy answers into critical questions and then put those questions to people with power. To whom do public archaeologists address these questions? I am currently involved in an ongoing experiment to use typically nonarchaeological venues to engage with multiple publics about “history matters.” This includes participation in historical societies, commissions, and committees which may have stated aims to discuss, celebrate, and preserve history, but which frequently (sometimes unconsciously) perpetuate and reproduce traditional race/class inequities and power imbalances. My archaeological focus on inner-city African American neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, means that both my research and this larger project take place in settings where insensitive gentrification is impeding grassroots efforts to maintain and reclaim control of historical landscapes and narratives. This article will examine and critique this work, owning mistakes made and (usually small) victories achieved.

Prophetic Pragmatism and the Practices of Freedom: On Cornel West's Foucauldian Methodology

This essay explores the Foucauldian influence on Cornel West’s prophetic pragmatism. Although West argues that Foucauldian methods are insufficient to deliver a philosophy of liberation, I argue that there is nothing in Foucault that would prohibit West from such a goal, even though a philosophy of liberation was not one of Foucault’s goals. Fortunately, one can understand West’s own project of liberation in terms of “practices of freedom,” allowing one to describe West’s philosophical project in strict Foucauldian terms.

Rorty or Kierkegaard: Social Amelioration, Truth and the Ground of Cornel West’s Normative Commitments

AbstractThis article examines the work of Cornel West as a resource for public theology. Inspired by the prophetic biblical tradition, he seeks to uphold ethical commitments to social amelioration in order to ‘let suffering speak’. However, uncertainty about the capacity of his work to serve in this way is rooted in questions about the competing sources grounding his thought. When evincing the influence of Richard Rorty’s neo-pragmatism he fails to give expression to a realist account of truth. Yet such an account is necessary to uphold a robust commitment to amelioration. His work is on surer ground and serves better as a resource for public theology when it gives expression to a Kierkegaardian realism. Such a position, which affirms the socially mediated nature of truth claims while upholding their aspiration to refer to reality, solicits a ‘renunciative’ understanding of theology that is open to social suffering and seeks its amelioration.

“Mindful of the Sacrifices Borne by Our Ancestors”: Terror, Historical Consciousness, and the Slave Sublime

This article contends that the arts have a crucial part to play in calling attention to the decline of America's democratic traditions, while simultaneously enabling the recollection of what remains of ideals of liberty and justice in the wake of American empire. Following Cornel West, the author argues that the tragicomic hope that characterizes the musical and artistic heritage of blues people offers an incomparable resource for political renewal. Specifically, representations of moral resistance against racial terror can reconfigure our understanding of the relationship between liberty and justice, on the one hand, and the need for security in a dangerous world. The author considers the contributions of blues women of the 1920s and 1930s, and then traces the ethos of the blues through the creative writing of Toni Morrison, whose characters represent a commitment to liberty even in the most devastating circumstances.

Brown Policy and the Moral Pillars of Democracy: Exploring Justice as the Organizing Principle of Educational Studies

The purpose of this article is to revisit Brown as a paradigmatic understanding of social justice and its barriers, by reconsidering Brown in light of the three moral pillars of democracy identified by Cornel West (2004). West maintains that authentic deep democracy is grounded in three fundamental capacities and dispositions, or pillars: (a) Socratic questioning, (b) a prophetic commitment to justice, and (c) tragicomic hope. West's articulation of these pillars constitutes 20 a philosophical framework for the exploration of the basic demands of justice in a democratic society. These moral pillars can also offer useful insights into this phase of living exploration of Brown and its central place in educational studies.

Religion and Democratic Citizenship: Inquiry and Conviction in the American Public Square

In J. Caleb Clanton's book Religion and Democratic Citizenship, the author focuses on one core question: what role, if any, should religion play in public debate? As a way of framing the discussion, Clanton divides the contemporary debate between two competing schools of thought. American pragmatists, beginning with William James and their reconstructivist offspring, attempt to accord a place for religion by fundamentally changing its nature. In the works of James, Clanton observes an understanding of religion that emphasizes the practical consequences of religion for citizenship, rather than a system of belief positing objective metaphysical claims about the universe and its creator. Citing James, he writes that “religion simply ‘means the affirmation of an eternal moral order and the letting loose of hope’” (23). Pragmatists see religion as a tool for providing men with the necessary motivation to achieve great things in the face of life's perpetual disappointments. Clanton contends this approach to religion, and the requirement that only those of such a character be allowed into the public square, is unjustifiably restrictive. Most subscribers to a “traditional” type of religious belief adhere to the moral order not simply because of the hope it provides, but because it is seen as objectively true. Such persons are deeply concerned about the truth of their religion regardless of the material consequences or benefits such a belief system may provide society. Similarly, reconstructivists such as Richard Rorty and Cornel West attempt to reformulate religion to make it compatible with the public square. This is done primarily by emphasizing the symbolic nature of religion and the secular/material benefits these symbols provide humanity. For Clanton, both approaches to religion are too narrow as they exclude from public debate significant segments of the religious community.

Reviews

Reviewed are Composition and Cornel West: Notes toward a Deep Democracy by Keith Gilyard and The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing by Mark McGurl.

Defining “Religion”

The context: I have used this in my World Religions course during the first week of class. The pedagogical purpose: (1) To help students understand that there is no single definition of religion. By using a chronological list of definitions of religion students see how historical contexts have shaped what is defined as religion and how the understanding of the purpose of religion has changed from one historical period to another; (2) to create awareness of the variety of opinion about religion in the classroom and (3) to empower students' voices in the discussion of the study of religion. Description of the strategy: On the first day I have students write answers to two basic questions: what is religion and what purpose does it serve? I distribute definitions of religions for them to read for the next class. Lists of definitions are widely available. The list starts with early definitions by Feuerbach and Freud and ends with modern definitions by Charles Long and Cornell West. In the next class students discuss in small groups the following: which definitions do they agree or disagree with, and why. Then the group discusses their answers and how definitions of religion have changed over time. Finally, I write the main elements of their definitions of religion and its purpose on a board and we discuss how their definitions are similar to the theorists' definitions. Why it is effective: This tactic is effective for several reasons. First, it shows students that their own definitions of religion are similar to religion theorists' definitions. Students see that their understanding of religion is valid and that each of them has something to add to this ongoing debate. Second, discussion about the purpose of religion allows the students to see that religion has many purposes and not all people agree with what it is that religion does. This is an effective approach to this topic because students see that not only do they as a group disagree on what religion is and what it does but they see that scholars of religion also disagree. This is a useful conversation to have in the first week since it creates an atmosphere of critical engagement with different viewpoints.

Religion, Pragmatism, and Dissent: Theodore Parker's Experience as a Minister

Religion, Pragmatism, and Dissent:Theodore Parker's Experience as a Minister John Kaag I. Introduction: American History and American Philosophy On October 16, 1859, John Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory. He planned to seize the cache of weapons in order to arm local slaves, to march south, and to deplete Virginia of the slaves who supported its economy. While it failed to realize this objective, the raid succeeded in driving a wedge between the Union and the Confederate States. The rift that Brown helped create grew into the gaping wound of the Civil War. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln surveyed the site of the most gruesome aspect of that wound: Soldier's Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His Gettysburg Address signaled a turn in the war and a turn in the Union's favor. It is remembered as a significant step in the project that had been initiated at Harper's Ferry. Today we regard these events as pivotal moments in American history. We tend to forget the fact that they were pivotal moments in, and embodied moments of, the American philosophical tradition. Behind each of these moments was the thinking and action of Theodore Parker (1810-1860), a Unitarian minister, transcendentalist, and social reformer who served as a forbearer to the American pragmatists. Parker was a member of the "Secret Six," a group of wealthy abolitionists who provided financial and political support to Brown in his activities in Kansas and West Virginia. Parker provided material support, but also a solid ideological underpinning for the abolitionist movement. This ideology was developed while serving as a Unitarian minister in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston in the early 1840s. Parker was in the audience of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Divinity School Address in 1838 and took Emerson's [End Page 1] words to heart: "newborn bard(s) of the Holy Ghost,—cast behind you all conformity, and acquaint men at first hand with Deity" (Emerson, Essays 40). For Parker, casting off conformity involved being a vocal and reliable opponent of slavery, ecclesiastical sectarianism, and gender discrimination. It is with these concerns in mind that he addressed an audience at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention in 1850. In his talk, entitled "The Effects of Slavery on Men in America," Parker stated that, "Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people" (Collected Works 5: 106). Lincoln adopted this phrase in his 1864 address at Gettysburg, and it has achieved iconic status over the years, capturing the meaning and hope of a nation's founding. Parker's life has gained notoriety in recent years, largely due to Dean Grodzin's American Heretic: Theodore Parker and the Transcendentalists. The following article, however, attempts to approach this phrase not as the icon that Grodzin presents, but as a moment in the broader intellectual life of a Unitarian minister who championed a form of American philosophy in New England in the antebellum years. Most scholars of American intellectual history such as Cornell West, Louis Menand, and John Stuhr argue that American pragmatism stems from the work of Transcendentalist thinkers, most notably that of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (West 9-41; Stuhr 1-7; Menand 9). Parker's work is routinely marginalized in this genealogy; rarely have scholars underscored the way in which Parker's thinking and social activism serves as a harbinger for the classical pragmatic tradition. Menand does treat Parker as an important figure in American intellectual history, but does not afford him the attention that might be necessary to explain the deep similarities between his work and the American pragmatic tradition. Remedying this oversight is important since Parker's work proves more practically oriented than the poetry and prose of his Concord colleagues. As Brent notes, Parker was a frequent visitor to Benjamin Peirce's Mason Street home in the 1840s, and his thinking permeated the walls and dwellings of other minds of the period (45). Many of his writings anticipate the positions that C. S. Peirce, William James, Josiah Royce, and John Dewey would later develop in regard to inquiry, religion, and metaphysics, and Parker's social...

Charles Johnson in Context

Reviewed by: Charles Johnson in Context Marc C. Conner (bio) Selzer, Linda Furgerson . Charles Johnson in Context. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2009. The scholarly work produced on the novelist, short-story writer, philosopher, and cultural theorist Charles Johnson has become increasingly sophisticated and penetrating in the past decade. The first book-length study of Johnson's work, Jonathan Little's Charles Johnson's Spiritual Imagination (1997), set forth several fundamental readings of and approaches to Johnson; then Will Nash's astute Charles Johnson's Fiction (2003) studied Johnson's political and literary influences in keen detail; Gary Storhoff's Understanding Charles Johnson (2004) delved deeply into the Buddhist elements in Johnson's work; Rudolph Byrd's Charles Johnson's Novels: Writing the American Palimpsest (2005) explored Johnson's work as offering heteroglossic readings of American culture; and finally Marc Conner and Will Nash's edited volume, Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher(2007), brought together a number of scholars in assessing Johnson's work from the multiple perspectives of philosophy, Johnson's original discipline. Over this ten-year span, the general terrain of Johnson scholarship has been marked, and the main issues and concepts have been pursued to some degree of completion. The time has come for studies of Johnson that build upon these fine works and pursue Johnson's writings further, examining Johnson in combination with other late-twentieth-century American writers, or in conversation with his historical time and place, or focusing on his development of particular ideas and concepts. Linda Selzer has accomplished precisely this in her superb study, Charles Johnson in Context. Moving from the work that has come before her (and to which she herself contributed), Selzer explores Johnson's writing from within three major intellectual contexts, producing an interpretation of Johnson's work and importance that is impressive in its depth and intellectual power. Selzer engages Johnson through three major lenses of interpretation, focusing on the contexts of black philosophers, black Buddhists, and the "new" black intellectuals. By bringing these crucial contexts into relief, Selzer is able to tie Johnson's artistic achievements to the larger projects of those working to reform the practice of American academic philosophy in the [End Page 569] post-World War II era, those seeking to translate an ancient religious practice into an African American idiom, and those attempting to redefine cosmopolitan thought in order to make it a more effective tool for social justice. Johnson's participation in all three of these endeavors deepens the historical import, social consequence, and conceptual depth of his art. (2) Selzer's ambitious intellectual approach accomplishes a double aim, both increasing our understanding of the influence on Johnson of these contexts, and at the same time showing how "Johnson's characteristic fusion of literature, Buddhism, and philosophy . . . vigorously participates in, advances, and helps to define larger directions in American intellectual life" (2). The result is a series of strong readings of Johnson's fiction, which further illuminate Johnson's own time and intellectual history. Selzer examines Johnson's own biography as a young black philosophy student in the late 1960s and as part of a larger movement in which black intellectuals moved increasingly into both the public sphere and the academic profession as philosophers. Such figures as Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stephen Carter, Johnson, and several others have revised American cosmopolitan thought. Selzer reads Johnson's National Book Award-winning novel, Middle Passage (1990), against the background of a rise of black intellectuals who opposed the increasing specialization and narrowness of traditional academia in favor of "organic" intellectual work and the effort "to articulate a cosmopolitanism that maintains an interplay between universals and particulars" (162, 167). Such efforts harmonize with much of Johnson's thought and work: "Johnson frequently enunciates a position that resonates with attempts to articulate a cosmopolitanism that reclaims the normative force of the universal while recognizing multiple, overlapping allegiances" (169). Selzer acknowledges how Middle Passage's setting—a raucous slave-ship crossing the Atlantic in the 1830s—hardly seems propitious to cosmopolitan thought; yet she illustrates the ways in which Johnson infuses this setting with complex intellectual figures of diverse backgrounds who articulate a range...