The desire of whiteness to experience the suffering of slavery creates insufferable pleasures. Hartman ’97 “Scenes of Subjection pg 26” The figurative capacities of blackness and the fungibility of the commodity are directly linked. The fungibility of the commodity, specifically its abstractness and immateriality, enabled the black body or blackface mask to serve as the vehicle of white self-exploration, renunciation, and enjoyment . Therefore the ability to put on blackness must be considered in the context of chattel slavery and the economy of enjoyment founded thereupon. Antebellum formations of pleasure, even those of the North, need to be considered in relation to the affective dimensions of chattel slavery since enjoyment is virtually unimaginable without recourse to the black body and the subjection of the captive, the diversions engendered by the dispossession of the enslaved, or the fantasies launched by the myriad uses of the black body. For this reason the formal features of this economy of pleasure and the politics of enjoyment are considered in regard to the literal and figurative occupation and possession of the body. The expectations of slave property are ontologized as the innate capacities and inner feelings of the enslaved, and moreover, the ascription of excess and enjoyment to the African schematic analysis of minstrelsy
The desire of whiteness to experience the suffering of slavery
creates insufferable pleasures.
Hartman 97 Scenes of Subjection pg 26
The figurative capacities of blackness and the fungibility of
the commodity are directly linked. The fungibility of the
commodity, specifically its abstractness and immateriality, enabled
the black body or blackface mask to serve as the vehicle of white
self-exploration, renunciation, and enjoyment. Therefore the
ability to put on blackness must be considered in the context of
chattel slavery and the economy of enjoyment founded thereupon.
Antebellum formations of pleasure, even those of the North, need to
be considered in relation to the affective dimensions of chattel
slavery since enjoyment is virtually unimaginable without recourse
to the black body and the subjection of the captive, the diversions
engendered by the dispossession of the enslaved, or the fantasies
launched by the myriad uses of the black body. For this reason the
formal features of this economy of pleasure and the politics of
enjoyment are considered in regard to the literal and figurative
occupation and possession of the body.
The expectations of slave property are ontologized as the innate
capacities and inner feelings of the enslaved, and moreover, the
ascription of excess and enjoyment to the African schematic
analysis of minstrelsy
