A Gift of the Spirit: Reading the Souls of Black Folk Contributor(s): Wolfenstein, Eugene Victor (Author) |
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ISBN: 0801473535 ISBN-13: 9780801473531 Publisher: Cornell University Press
Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: April 2007 Click for more in this series: Psychoanalysis and Social Theory |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - African American - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - History | African American |
Dewey: 305.896 |
LCCN: 2006101253 |
Age Level: 18-UP |
Grade Level: 13-UP |
Series: Psychoanalysis and Social Theory |
Physical Information: 0.49" H x 7.06" W x 8.96" L (0.60 lbs) 192 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
Features: Bibliography, Index, Table of Contents |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: In A Gift of the Spirit, Eugene Victor Wolfenstein offers a reading of W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk aimed at demonstrating its organic unity and coherence. He takes as his interpretive key the experience of the color line with which Du Bois's narrative begins--the incident from his youth in which a white girl refused his offer of a visiting card. Wolfenstein contends that this instance of misrecognition makes visible an aesthetic and affective configuration involving insult and injury, both racial and personal; anger as the immediate response to the humiliating wound; and, when that anger is suppressed, a melancholy retreat from the site of injury. As Wolfenstein reconstructs it, Souls tells the story of Du Bois's twofold approach to waging the battle for recognition: proud and disciplined resistance to the impositions and injustices of white supremacy; and the development of an intellectual station above the field of battle, where it could be surveyed from on high.With its serious and respectful approach to this canonical work in African American social theory, A Gift of the Spirit is a fitting tribute to the enduring relevance of Du Bois's singular achievement. |
Contributor Bio(s): Wolfenstein, Eugene Victor: - Eugene Victor Wolfenstein is Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Los Angeles and a member of the faculty of the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute. His previous books include Psychoanalytic-Marxism: Groundwork, The Victims of Democracy: Malcolm X and the Black Revolution, Personality and Politics, and The Revolutionary Personality. |
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