2 research outputs found
Questions of presence
This article considers some of the ways in which âthe black womanâ as both representation and embodied, sentient being is rendered visible and invisible and to link these to the multiple and competing ways in which she is âpresentâ. The issues are engaged through three distinct but overlapping conceptualisations of âpresenceâ. âPresenceâ as conceived (and highly contested) in performance studies; âpresenceâ as conceived and worked with in psychoanalysis; and âpresenceâ as decolonising political praxis among indigenous communities. I use these conceptualisations of presence to consider the various ways in which the black woman as figure and as embodied/sentient subject has been made present/absent in different discursive registers. I also explore what is foreclosed and how this is itself linked to legacies of colonial âworldingâ. I end with consideration of alternative modes of black womenâs presence and how this offers a resource for new modes of sociality.
Keywords
Black women; presence; colonial violence; de-gendering; psychosocial; triangular spac