Black Utopia

Reviewed by: Black Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism by Alex Zamalin Patrice Rankine Alex Zamalin. Black Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism. New York: Columbia UP, 2019. 192 pp. $26.00. Alex Zamalin's Black Utopia feels as if it was written for the contemporary moment despite its being anchored primarily in other epochs. The early twenty-first century has revealed the pernicious hold of race at every stratum of society, and of late the destructive arc of racial thinking in America is particularly excruciating to watch, even if race as a cultural reality has long been cause for concern, even pessimism. The study of Black engagement with utopian theory is especially timely during a pandemic and will continue to be so in its aftermath. Zamalin's argument is that speculation regarding utopia is a constant feature of the creative output of Black thinkers, whether they be political theorists, novelists, or musicians. Anchoring the idea of utopia in the sixteenth-century writing of Sir Thomas More, Zamalin lands on the "speculative myth" of Northrop Frye, affirming that utopia "lives on the precipice of human imagination" (5). Zamalin could have laid the theoretical groundwork for utopia through any number of successors to More, but by citing Frye, a literary critic, he signals the number of directions his analysis will take other than political theory. Black speculative thought, Black utopia, can be found in all media and genres. Black writers and artists are "engaged in a unique form of utopian theorizing" (12). In the hands of African Americans in the United States, utopia is necessarily infused with a "sense of tragedy." This tragic reality, which is Zamalin's first proposition, makes Black utopian associations unavoidably dystopic, at times even alarming. Secondly, Zamalin sees in these works consistent reflections on political theory, even when the mode is music. Thirdly, Black utopia is not escapist, even when its speculation brings the reader to another time and place, whether that place is pristine, precolonial Africa, as is the case with Richard Wright's Black Power; or the fictional Triton, the futuristic "hetero-topia" of Samuel R. Delany's invention. Through each of these iterations, Zamalin traces the artist's "critique of American culture" (14). He asserts that Black Utopia focuses on [End Page 256] "cultural texts" rather than political theory per se because "the utopian imagination has often been expressed through art" (16). Put otherwise, "Black utopia made aesthetics political" (17). Black Utopia is structured chronologically with a focus on approximately one artist or writer per chapter. The reader is able to survey utopia in the hands of Black thinkers as it pertains to social Darwinism, gender, capital, class struggle, wealth and poverty, law and justice, education, and individualism, to name many of the areas covered. In each case race is the point of departure, and if it is not the reality from which to escape, then it is certainly that with which to grapple. Since none of the writers or artists is a political theorist per se, it is not clear why certain figures are chosen over others. For example, why does George S. Schuyler have an entire chapter of analysis but Pauline Hopkins just a few pages in chapter two? Ida B. Wells is not included in the book, but isn't her crusade against lynching a utopian fantasy as well? These questions notwithstanding, those contained in the study are certainly worthy of attention, but Zamalin might have given his reader more direction regarding his choices. Chapter one presents Martin Delany (1812-85), whose own back-to-Africa repatriation project never came to fruition. Zamalin foregrounds two major works of Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered (1852); and Blake, or the Huts of America (1859-62). Throughout these works Delany saw racism as a tool of "elite power," used to "fracture interracial solidarity" (24). The Enlightenment idea of natural law pervades the works (25). Chapter two is anomalous in its serial approach, touching on authors as varied as Edward Bellamy, Sutton E. Griggs, Frances Harper, and Pauline Hopkins. The fantasies of

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Literature · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Utopia · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction