Reference no: EM132476709 , Length: 1800 Words
AFRSTY 101 Introduction to Africana Studies Assignment - University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
Reading and Study Notes for Cornel West's "A Genealogy of Modern Racism"
Please answer the questions in essay form-roughly a paragraph each. Strong responses will incorporate textual evidence effectively (and appropriately) and will be written in clear, focused, and grammatically correct prose.
Q1. In his essay "A Genealogy of Modern Racism," what does Cornel West mean by a "doctrine of white supremacy"? Why does he refer to it as an "object of modern discourse"? Be specific.
Q2. West claims that within the "epistemological field" of modern discourse black equality is a form of what? Explain.
Q3. What is West's genealogical approach? What is he trying to show or prove that is different from other studies? (Here it will be important to think carefully about why discourse matters to him and how discourse-or the "discursive"-is related to culture.)
Q4. What does he mean by "non-discursive" and "discursive" structures? Provide examples. Also consider why it is important for his argument that we distinguish between these two categories.)
Q5. What is the "structure of modern discourse" to West? What are the historical processes he traces? Be specific.
Q6. Why does West call Bacon and Descartes "propagandists of modern science? Why are they significant thinkers, according to West, and how do they each help to shape his argument?
Q7. What is important about the "classical revival"? What are "classical aesthetic and cultural norms" and how do they relate to what he calls a "normative gaze"?
Q8. What are the two stages to the "Emergence of Modern Racism" and what ideas and thinkers are significant to each?
Q9. What is physiognomy and what does it purport to describe? What ideas is it based upon and how does it (as a discourse) relate to a "normative gaze"?
Q10. What is the relationship between natural history as a discourse and the emergence of white supremacy? Be specific.
Q11. What are the ironies or contradictions to the views of Smith and Rush? Who were they and what did they argue? How, in West's terms, were they "captive to the 'normative gaze'"?
Q12. What, for West, is problematic about Frank Snowden's claims about the modernity of racism? What is racial difference actually grounded in and why does this matter?
Q13. What does West mean by "the cultural and aesthetic impact" of white supremacy on black people?
Attachment:- Reading - A Genealogy of Modern Racism.rar