The Quest for Community and Identity: Critical Essays in Africana Social Philosophy

by Robert E. Birt, Rod Bush, George Carew, Kevin Cokley, Arnold Farr

Overview

This collection of essays engages two of the most fundamental social and political issues of our time: community and identity. Wrestling with the perplexities of these two issues within the Africana world, the contributors delve into the influences of a postmodern world of globalization with outdated, crumbling forms of identity and sociality. In the wake of such an order, new forms of identity and community must be established. Birt has collected an informed group of contributors here, who lay the foundation for a new approach to finding community and identity in the Africana world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742512924
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/20/2001
Series:	New Critical Theory
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.78(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Robert E. Birt is assistant professor of philosophy at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Part 1:Exploring Perplexities of Identity
Chapter 2 1. Racism, Historical Ruins, and the Task of Identity Formation
Chapter 3 2. To Be or Not to Be Black: Problematics of Racial Identity
Chapter 4 3. Postmodernism, Narrative, and the Question of Black Identity
Chapter 5 4. Du Bois and Appiah: The Politics of Race and Racial Identity
Part 6 Part 2:In Quest of Community: Sociality and Situated Freedom
Chapter 7 5. Of the Quest for Freedom As Community
Chapter 8 6. Sociality and Community in Black: A Phenomenological Essay
Part 9 Part 3:Historical Crises of Identity and Community
Chapter 10 7. Visions of Transcendent Community in the Works of Toni Morrison
Chapter 11 8. Paulette Nardal, Race Consciousness, and Antillean Letters
Chapter 12 9. The Revival of Black Nationalism and the Crisis of Liberal Universalism
Chapter 13 10. Commodification and Existence in African American Communities
Part 14 Part 4:Liberalism, Postmodernism, and the Quest for Community
Chapter 15 11. Black Philosophy As a Challenge to Liberalism
Chapter 16 12. Democracy, Transitional Justice, and Postcolonial African Communities
Chapter 17 13. Community: What Type of Entity and What Type of Moral Commitment?
Chapter 18 14 Theorizing Black Community

Editorial Reviews

The Quest for Community and Identity is a testimony to the vibrancy of Africana philosophy and the seriousness of the philosophical issues that Africana philosophy raises.

Robert Bernasconi

Recommended for mid- to upper-level courses on African American social and political thought.

Choice

Recommended for mid- to upper-level courses on African American social and political thought.

Choice Reviews

A significant contribution to social and political philosophy, critical race theory, and African American or Africana Philosophy.. .. The Quest for Community and Identity is an important resource for a number of disciplines and interdisciplinary endeavors.

Lucius T. Outlaw

Although the majority of the 14 essays included here focus on African American thought, the facts that some writers are not African American and some concerns relate to the Black world outside of North America are reflected in the title of this work, edited by Birt (philosophy, Morgan State U.). There is no unified project among these essays, except for a concern with the problems and perplexities of community and identity, especially as they pertain to the modern day situations of Black people. The essays grapple with concrete historical and economic problems, as well as more rarefied philosophical issues. As is to be expected from a work trying to find meaning in the Black experience, the political ramifications of philosophy is never far from view. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Recommended for mid- to upper-level courses on African American social and political thought.

CHOICE