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Dave Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones as Black Radical Tragic comedy

Bibliographic Data

ID12370021
AuthorsLee M Pierce (0000-0001-5591-9813, SUNY Geneseo, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume42
Issue2
Pages126-143
Publication date2022-02-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueText and Performance Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1046-2937 • E-ISSN: 1479-5760
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10462937.2022.2036803
OpenAlexW4213287986
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited21

This essay argues that Dave Chappelle’s 2019 Netflix comedy special Sticks & Stones is a staging of the Black Radical Tragic in which Chappelle performs without resolving the tension between Black revolutionary leadership and the mass-based concerns necessary for collective mobilization. Chappelle maintains the tragic dialectic through two modes of performance: the inscription of Black men and ethopoeia, or impersonation, reserved for the Others. However, that dialectic fails in key points as Chappelle’s Others, particularly Black women, are simultaneously inscribed and impersonated, revealing the impossibility of inscribing Black men against threats to liberation

Art · Comedy · Dialectic · Impossibility · Inscribed figure · Literature · Political science · Theology · Cinema and Media Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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Unique citing works3
Citations per year1
Citation span2023 - 2025 (3)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3
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