Africana Critical Theory

Reconstructing The Black Radical Tradition, From W. E. B. Du Bois and C. L. R. James to Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral

Reiland Rabaka

Building on and going far beyond W.E.B. Du Bois and the Problems of the Twenty-First Century and Du Bois's Dialectics, Reiland Rabaka's Africana Critical Theory innovatively identifies and analyzes continental and diasporan African contributions to classical and contemporary critical theory. This book represents a climatic critical theoretical clincher that cogently demonstrates how Du Bois's rarely discussed dialectical thought, interdisciplinarity, intellectual history-making radical political activism, and world-historical multiple liberation movement leadership helped to inaugurate a distinct Africana tradition of critical theory. With chapters on W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Negritude (Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor), Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, Africana Critical Theory endeavors to accessibly offer contemporary critical theorists an intellectual archaeology of the Africana tradition of critical theory and a much-needed dialectical deconstruction and reconstruction of black radical politics. These six seminal figures' collective thought and texts clearly cuts across several disciplines and, therefore, closes the chasm between Africana Studies and critical theory, constantly demanding that intellectuals not simply think deep thoughts, develop new theories, and theoretically support radical politics, but be and constantly become political activists, social organizers and cultural workers - that is, folk the Italian critical theorist Antonio Gramsci referred to as 'organic intellectuals.' In this sense, then, the series of studies gathered in Africana Critical Theory contribute not only to African Studies, African American Studies, Caribbean Studies, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, but also to contemporary critical theoretical discourse across an amazingly wide-range of 'traditional' disciplines, and radical political activism outside of (and, in many instances, absolutely against) Europe's ivory towers and the absurdities of the American academy.

Lexington Books

Pages: 452 • Trim: 7⅜ x 10½

978-0-7391-2885-5 • Hardback • January 2009 • $189.00 • (£146.00)

978-0-7391-2886-2 • Paperback • July 2010 • $78.99 • (£61.00)

978-0-7391-3309-5 • eBook • January 2009 • $75.00 • (£58.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / African American, Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies

Africana Critical Theory

Reconstructing The Black Radical Tradition, From W. E. B. Du Bois and C. L. R. James to Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Building on and going far beyond W.E.B. Du Bois and the Problems of the Twenty-First Century and Du Bois's Dialectics, Reiland Rabaka's Africana Critical Theory innovatively identifies and analyzes continental and diasporan African contributions to classical and contemporary critical theory. This book represents a climatic critical theoretical clincher that cogently demonstrates how Du Bois's rarely discussed dialectical thought, interdisciplinarity, intellectual history-making radical political activism, and world-historical multiple liberation movement leadership helped to inaugurate a distinct Africana tradition of critical theory. With chapters on W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Negritude (Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor), Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, Africana Critical Theory endeavors to accessibly offer contemporary critical theorists an intellectual archaeology of the Africana tradition of critical theory and a much-needed dialectical deconstruction and reconstruction of black radical politics. These six seminal figures' collective thought and texts clearly cuts across several disciplines and, therefore, closes the chasm between Africana Studies and critical theory, constantly demanding that intellectuals not simply think deep thoughts, develop new theories, and theoretically support radical politics, but be and constantly become political activists, social organizers and cultural workers - that is, folk the Italian critical theorist Antonio Gramsci referred to as 'organic intellectuals.' In this sense, then, the series of studies gathered in Africana Critical Theory contribute not only to African Studies, African American Studies, Caribbean Studies, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, but also to contemporary critical theoretical discourse across an amazingly wide-range of 'traditional' disciplines, and radical political activism outside of (and, in many instances, absolutely against) Europe's ivory towers and the absurdities of the American academy.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 452 • Trim: 7⅜ x 10½

978-0-7391-2885-5 • Hardback • January 2009 • $189.00 • (£146.00)

978-0-7391-2886-2 • Paperback • July 2010 • $78.99 • (£61.00)

978-0-7391-3309-5 • eBook • January 2009 • $75.00 • (£58.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / African American, Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies

Author

Reiland Rabaka is associate professor of Africana studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is also an affiliate professor of women and gender studies and a research fellow at the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America (CSERA). He is also the recipient of the Cheikh Anta Diop Distinguished Career Award.

Table of Contents

1 (Re) Introducing the Africana Traditon of Critical Theory: Posing Problems and Searching for Solutions
2 W. E. B. Du Bois: The Soul of a Pan–African Marxist Male–Feminist
3 C. L. R. James: Pan–African Marxism Beyond All Boundaries
4 Aimé Césaire and Léopold Senghor: Revolutionary Negritude and Radical New Negroes
5 Frantz Fanon: Revolutionizing the Wretched of the Earth, Radicalizing the Discourse of Decolonization
6 Amilcar Cabral: Using the Weapon of Theory to Return to the Source(s) of Revolutionary Decolonization and Revolutionary Re-Africanization
7 Africana Critical Theory: Overcoming the Aversion to New Theory and New Praxis in Africana Studies and Critical Social Theory

Reviews

Africana Critical Theory offers a sweeping attempt to read the Africana tradition into critical theory. The book is accessibly written, and offers a useful teaching tool.
— David Theo Goldberg, Director, Humanities Research Institute, University of California

The strengths of this book revolve around Rabaka’s intimate understanding, brilliant critical analysis, and clear articulation of these complicated works, especially in his treatment of the Negritude thinkers. Rabaka clearly articulates his points in this book which leaves the reader with a solid understanding of these Africana theorists, their weaknesses, and how they contributed to Africana critical theory. ... In conclusion, Africana Critical Theory is an excellent intellectual guide and call to action to any academic serious about articulating/critiquing social inequalities and enacting social change. Reiland Rabaka’s work weaves together and critically engages figures central to Africana studies to formulate a radical theoretical and political praxis entitled Africana critical theory.

— Journal Of African American Studies