Philosophy Journal

Journal Topic

Post #1: How does Orlando Pattersons social death help us interpret a Kara Walker silhouette or a Billie Holiday performance? Use one specific example.

Concepts: Social death, natal alienation, genealogical isolation, the human/subhuman binary, the “afterlife of slavery,” critical fabulation.

• Readings: Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death (selections: Introduction, pps.35-45, chpt. 12 (CP); Saidiya Hartman, “Venus in Two Acts” (CP); Curry (IABWA).
• Sonic Curriculum: Robert Johnson (Hellhound on My Trail); Billie Holiday (Strange Fruit), Dorothy Ashby (The Moving Finger).
• Visual Philosophy: Kara Walker (silhouettes, violence, archival silence); Archival Photographs (e.g., mugshots, ethnographic images) read through Hartmans lens.
• Philosophy Journal Post #1: How does Pattersons social death help us interpret a Kara Walker silhouette or a Billie Holiday performance?
• Film: Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust (opening scenes on Ibo Landing).