W. E. B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk

Reading Souls with Phenomenology: A Preface to Chapter 5

101 reading souls with phenomenology A Preface to Chapter 5 Du Bois’ rendering of Crummell’s life story not only allowed him to pay tribute to someone who was obviously a friend but also provided a useful vehicle for illustrating the journey of an individual soul to spirit. Crummell’slifewasespeciallyideal,however,becauseHegel’sexampleofthe “unhappy consciousness” involved a priest (a religious self-consciousness) engaged in a struggle with God.1 Although suggestions of such a journey in the lives of other individuals are evident from the start of Du Bois’ book, a complete Hegelian example requires that we see the individual process in its entirety, which Crummell’s life story accomplished. Given, however, that Phenomenology is about groups and about their relationship to World Soul, even more evidence is necessary for the comparison between Souls and Phenomenology to hold up.2 Although it is widely accepted that some of Du Bois’ published work reflects the influence of Hegelian idealism, the debate over the extent to which any of this work was influenced by Phenomenology remains unsettled . Most recently, Robert Gooding-Williams wrote: “I do wish emphatically to reject the much stronger thesis that the Hegel-echoing features of Du Bois’s concepts and language belong to a narrative that palpably parallels the narrative of a well-defined stretch of the Phenomenology.”3 “Proving” an exclusive relationship is not the purpose of this brief exploration . Even where the similarities between the two texts are strong, intellectual thought at any particular point in time usually derives from a line of thinking and a series of thinkers representing a span of time. That is to say that Hegel’s Phenomenology bears the influence of Fichte, Schelling, and others, most of whom were partly indebted to Kant. Moreover, philosophers can trace lines of reasoning in all of these works all the way back to the classical philosophers.4 The goal here, however, is simply to show that The Souls of Black Folk has a closer and more complete relationship to Phenomenology than has previously been demonstrated. The point is not that it is the only influence. 102 Preface to Chapter 5 Du Bois was not deterred by the fact that Hegel did not consider the role of black folk in Soul’s/Consciousness’s journey toward self-determination/ freedom and Spirit’s quest for knowledge in his philosophy. The relative absence of black people in Hegel’s studies likely created a purpose rather than an obstacle for Du Bois. Subsequently published literature—scholarly and popular—that characterized black people as tertium quid was not daunting, either. Instead, Du Bois simply went to work. His history of the striving of the souls of black folk established their humanity and their rightful placement in the narrative of World Soul’s journey to freedom and to knowledge. It is easy to miss the parallels between Souls and Phenomenology for a number of reasons. First, Du Bois was writing to a very diverse audience; the text had to hold relevance for all of them (or as many as possible). Second, Du Bois was more than a philosopher: he was a historian, sociologist , political economist, and creative writer, at least, and carrying out the methods and objectives of these diverse areas easily obscured some of the philosophical revelations. Third, because Du Bois’ chapters are not named for the aspects of consciousness discussed in them as Hegel’s chapters are, even the sometimes-striking parallels in content and structure can recede into the background of the more obvious history and sociology. And finally, and perhaps related to all of the above, rather obvious historical reference points (e.g., Du Bois’ appropriation of Revolutionary Era rhetoric) scattered throughout the text also have the potential to lead readers astray. Despite all these potential diversions, explicit Hegelian parallels are clear across the book. Looking directly at Du Bois’ first nine chapters as Hegelian in structure and content provides a useful introduction to his final four chapters, which have no direct parallel in Hegel’s study. Thus, the first nine chapters in Souls also give the final four chapters new significance. The first section of Du Bois’ study, in which these black folk who were finally legally free and attempting to make sense of a world that was simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, replicates important parts of Hegel’s first chapter, “Consciousness.” Du Bois’ first three chapters, in fact, should be compared to the content of Hegel’s three...