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Can One Get Out? The Aesthetics of Afro-Pessimism
- Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association
- Midwest Modern Language Association
- Volume 51, Number 2, Fall 2018
- pp. 69-102
- 10.1353/mml.2018.0015
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
"Can One Get Out? The Aesthetics of Afro-Pessimism" situates Jordan Peele's 2017 movie Get Out in dialogue with two prominent forms of African American discourse, Afro-Pessimism and Post-Blackness. Peele's movie narrates how slavery remains a central paradigm for understanding the present, a central tenet of Afro-Pessimism. Although, as this article argues, Peele's movie narrates the deep truth of Afro-Pessimism, the movie also gestures toward ways out of this seemingly historical fixity. The way out, the movie suggests, begins with aesthetics—radical Black aesthetics.