Democracy and Beauty: The Political Aesthetics of W. E. B. Du Bois [Minkštas viršelis]

"During the decade of the First World War African American philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois argued that white supremacy thwarted the democratic political aspirations of the earth's "darker peoples," rendering them vulnerable to race-based economic exploitationand anti-Black mob violence. At the same time he proposed an aesthetics that foregrounded beauty as a political force that both motivated Black struggle against white supremacy and even undermined its grip on those who perpetuated it. Because it is rooted in the entrenched habits--the moral character--of the white supremacist and resists rational revision, Du Bois argued, beauty has a unique role in unsettling and transforming the pernicious habits that perpetuate it. Entrenched beliefs and assumptions must be attacked with weapons of sudden and immediate "assault." Artistic beauty is one of those weapons: it can contest and discompose white Christian religious self-understanding. Bridging the Nietzschean pessimism of his time and the Afropessimism of our own, Du Bois's wager is that, though white supremacy will always exist, perhaps it can be lessened, because it is not an essential aspect of the world and the struggle against it can never be foreclosed"--

What is beauty, and what is its political function? In what ways might it help undermine white supremacy and cultivate a more democratic political culture? Democracy and Beauty shines a light on W. E. B. Du Bois’s attempts to answer these questions during the decade surrounding the First World War and, in so doing, offers a groundbreaking account of the philosopher’s aesthetics.

Robert Gooding-Williams reconstructs Du Bois’s defense of the political potential of beauty to challenge oppressive systems and foster an inclusive democracy. White supremacy is a powerful force that defies rational revision, Du Bois argued, because it is rooted in the entrenched routines of its adherents. Beauty, however, has a distinctive role to play in the struggle against white supremacy. It can strengthen resolve and ward off despair by showing the oppressed that they can alter their social world, and it can unsettle and even transform the pernicious habits that perpetuate white supremacy. Gooding-Williams also explores Du Bois’s account of the interplay among white supremacy, Christianity, capitalism, and imperialism as well as key tensions in his work. A rich engagement with Du Bois’s philosophy of beauty, this book demonstrates the relevance of his social thought and aesthetics to present-day arguments about Black pessimism, Black optimism, and the aesthetic turn in Black studies.

Robert Gooding-Williams reconstructs W. E. B. Du Bois’s defense of the political potential of beauty to challenge oppressive systems and foster an inclusive democracy.