Maternal Ethics and Other Slave Moralities

by Willett,Cynthia

• ISBN13: 9780415912105
• ISBN10: 0415912105
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1995-09-29
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

InMaternal Ethics and Other Slave Moralitieswhich includes the first extended philosophical discussion of the works of Frederick Douglass, Cynthia Willett puts forward a novel theory of ethical subjectivity that is aimed to counter prevailing pathologies of sexist, racist Eurocentric culture. Weaving together accounts of the self drawn from African-American and European philosophies, psychoanalysis, slave narratives and sociology, Willett interrogates what Hegel locates as the core of the self: the desire for recognition. Surveying the conceptual deficiencies that prevent both Marxism and neo-liberalism from fully comprehending the sources and effects of colonial oppression, Willett examines the social and psychological dynamics of post-colonial oppression and explores the causes of social and cultural denigration that accompanies colonization. In developing her theory of ethical subjectivity, Willet contests the ways in which Western culture projects its misogynisticfantasies onto mother-child relations and poses an alternative view that is suggestive of a repressed sensuality that lies within the bonds formed between mother and child. In this compelling analysis, Willett illuminates the ways in which maternal subjectivies serve as a critique of instrumental reason, calling upon another form of Reason altogether that can transform and emancipate subjects from the shackles of oppressive subject positions they occupy. Includes treatment of such authors as Irigaray, Levinas, Lacan, Hegel, Frederick Douglass, and Nietzsche.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Master Narrative, Postmodernism, Slave Narrative	p. 1
The Origin of Ethics in Music and Dance: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory	p. 17
Julia Kristeva: From Womb to Tomb	p. 19
Daniel Stern: The Social Dance	p. 24
Tactile Sociality: Irigaray and Child Development Research	p. 31
The Greeting: Historical Background	p. 57
Kojeve: Self-Creation	p. 57
Gadamer: The Role of the Greeting in Recognition	p. 63
Lacan and the Mirror Stage	p. 63
Jonathan Bennett and the Face in the Mirror	p. 68
The Figure of the Face: Levinas and Child Development Research	p. 75
The Face Stripped Bare	p. 75
Face-to-Face with the Mother	p. 83
The Saying before the Said, or Mamaese	p. 86
A Correspondence Theory of Ethical Exchange	p. 92
Hegel's Master Narrative of Freedom and the African American Experience	p. 105
Will over Desire	p. 106
Freedom as Self-Mastery	p. 113
The Slave as the Liminal Self	p. 119
The African American Experience of Slavery	p. 120
Black Dialectic/White Dialectic	p. 126
A Slave Narrative of Freedom: Frederick Douglass and the Force of Manhood	p. 129
The Ecstacy of Struggle	p. 132
Writing the Self: Douglas versus Foucault on Literacy	p. 135
Liberal and Dialectical Constructions of Manhood	p. 137
Black Spirituality	p. 143
Agency in the Slave	p. 148
Nietzschean and Psychoanalytic Explanations of Punishment	p. 151
The Pathology of the Oppressor	p. 152
The Healing Power of Music	p. 154
The Rhythms and Tones of Freedom	p. 156
Spirit: Friedrich Nietzsche versus Frederick Douglass	p. 157
Warrior versus Worker: Dubois on Freedom	p. 159
Free Spirits	p. 160
Ecstatic "Manhood"	p. 161
Demythologizing Power	p. 166
The Fear of Color	p. 167
Tactile Recognition	p. 169
The Birth of Freedom from the Spirit of Music	p. 173
Conclusion	p. 174
Notes	p. 177
Index	p. 213
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