Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Afro-Pessimism

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Critical Terms in Futures Studies

  • 1024 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, I identify some of the key interventions and implications of Afro-pessimism. In addition, I show the precursors of this burgeoning discourse, particularly within the field of Black studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Fanon, Frantz. 1986. Black skin, white masks. Trans. Charles Lam Markmann. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, Saidiya. 2007. Lose your mother: A journey along the Atlantic slave route. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, Martin. 2010. Being and time. Trans. Joan Stambaugh. Albany: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, Orlando. 1982. Slavery and social death: A comparative study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sexton, Jared. 2011. The social life of social death: On Afro-pessimism and black optimism. Intensions 5 (Fall/Winters): 1–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spillers, Hortense. 2003. Black, white, and in color: Essays on American literature and culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, Calvin. 2015. Black nihilism and the politics of hope. The New Centennial Review 15 (1 Spring): 215–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2018. Ontological terror: Blackness, nihilism, and emancipation. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilderson, Frank. 2010. Red, white, & black: Cinema and the structure of U.S. Antagonisms. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016. The inside-outside of civil society: An interview with Frank B. Wilderson III. Black Studies Papers 2 (1): 4–22.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Religious Studies and African and African American Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Joseph Winters

Authors
  1. Joseph Winters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joseph Winters .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English and American Studies, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Heike Paul

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Winters, J. (2019). Afro-Pessimism. In: Paul, H. (eds) Critical Terms in Futures Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28987-4_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation