The Race of a More Perfect Union

James Baldwin, Segregated Memory and the Presidential Race

Dados Bibliográficos

ID15030342
AutoresP J Brendese (0000-0001-7301-3978, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume15
Fascículo1
Data de publicação2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTheory & Event (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1092-311X • E-ISSN: 2572-6633
EditoraProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/tae.2012.0010
OpenAlexW1993356464
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas31

The 2008 U.S. presidential race dramatized the connection between America’s segregated memory and its segregated polity. This essay makes the case that James Baldwin offers valuable insight into the legacy of segregated memory in contemporary racial politics in general, and the presidential race in particular. To do so, I provide a brief historical overview of segregated memory since the Civil War, and offer an analysis of Baldwin’s account of the conscious and unconscious dimensions of memory and the impact of myth-histories on African Americans and whites. This is followed by an exposition of Baldwin’s approach to de-segregating memory, as well as the tensions and correspondences between his contributions to addressing mnemonic divides and those of Barack Obama in his “More Perfect Union” speech on race. The essay closes by outlining the political relevance of the theoretical tensions between Baldwin and Obama in an era alleged to have been made “post-racial” by the first black president

Art · Cognitive psychology · Exposition (narrative · Literature · Mnemonic · Mythology · Political science · Politics · Politics of memory · Polity · Presidential system · Race (biology · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies