W.E.B. Du Bois’s Neurological Modernity: I.Q., Afropessimism, Genre

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This essay considers the African-American scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois's surprising response to the development of the I.Q. version of mind in the 20th century - a eugenic discourse well understood at the time as a tool for reasserting white supremacy. The argument draws on the emergent discourse of "Afropessimism" to show how I.Q. functions as a specific metric through which to consider Progressive Era black literature and culture's positionally in relation to a normative regime of white supremacy re-instantiated by 20th century science. It suggests that rather than seeking "transcendence" or an "outside" to white science Du Bois's work engages with I.Q. to perform an immanent critique from "within the veil". Finally, the essay considers how this dynamic informs Du Bois's short story "The Comet" (1920).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave Handbook of Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Literature and Science
EditorsPriscilla Wald
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan US
Number of pages26
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-48244-2
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2020

Publication series

NamePalgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan

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