Dialogic constructions of new black aesthetics : East Africa and African America, 1952-1979
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation creates a dialogue between East African and African American cultural politicians that construct new black aesthetics between 1952 and 1979; these years encompass their respective liberation movements, including the Black Arts Movement, the Black Power Movement, and the National Independence Movements of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Cultural politicians are artists and ideologues with political influence that engage in the discourse on black cultural liberation through multiple creative and congressional forums. This dissertation considers theatrical, linguistic, sonic, and visual performances of philosophy that constitute radical black aesthetics during this period. First, it examines how both East African and African American cultural politicians stage the topography of a historical Black Nation. Second, how they make a case for Swahili as a cross-cultural black language. Third, how they revise and perform oral traditions to proselytize Black Nationalism. Finally, how they represent their ideologies sartorially, all in an effort to liberate Black people culturally ergo psychologically. I anchor this cross-cultural investigation into constructions of blackness----that is linguistic, aesthetic, and philosophical creations that come to constitute the abstract notion of blackness----with the then contemporaneous discourses on Africa's nature, on Black history, on legacies, and on prophecies. I argue that new black aesthetics emerge dialogically when East Africans engage with radical African American political and cultural ideologies and vice versa. Moreover, juxtaposing the politics of aesthetics in both regions, even when seemingly disparate, elucidates the shared discursive terrain for black identity and aesthetics in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Thus, by excavating the transnational discourse on cultural liberation in these ethno-geographic regions, I illuminate the overlooked relationship between East African and African American ideas and aesthetics. In so doing, I confront, underscore, and re-value the invention of tradition over and above its retention.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Mbowa, Aida Nambi Sharon |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Theater and Performance Studies. |
| Primary advisor | Elam, Harry Justin |
| Thesis advisor | Elam, Harry Justin |
| Thesis advisor | Cole, Catherine M |
| Thesis advisor | Menon, Jisha, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Rayner, Alice |
| Advisor | Cole, Catherine M |
| Advisor | Menon, Jisha, 1972- |
| Advisor | Rayner, Alice |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Aida Nambi Sharon Mbowa. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Theater and Performance Studies. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2013 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Aida Nambi Sharon Mbowa
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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