Antiblackness and 'Late' Capitalist Aesthetic Productivity, 1970s-present
Date of Award
Spring 2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
African American Studies
First Advisor
Mercer, Kobena
Abstract
“Antiblackness and 'Late' Capitalist Aesthetic Productivity, 1970s-present” examineshow capitalism and antiblackness have shaped art and media since the 1970s. Examining photography studios, film, video, advertising and Internet memes, it posits that the image has emerged as a site of perception structured by asymmetries of race and capital. In so doing, this project offers a theoretical and historical account of how a particular form of racial power— antiblackness—has positioned black people at the intersection of visual consumption and capitalist productivity. Such a positioning frames black people as captive to the visual, and this dissertation engages this problem by exploring the historical and theoretical relationship between photographic capture and the persistence of racial captivity. Through its analysis of visual objects and theoretical discourses, this project identifies the image as an active tool for the reproduction of captivity. In analyzing the racial violence of vision in this way, it also challenges understandings of race through identity, drawing on black studies and art-historical tools to grasp the conceptual and structural registers of race’s violence.
Recommended Citation
Kessel, Erich J., "Antiblackness and 'Late' Capitalist Aesthetic Productivity, 1970s-present" (2023). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 966.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/966
