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Abstract Header

Transforming “Blackness”: “Post-Black” and Contemporary Hip-Hop in Visual Culture

Sunami, April J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1219161375

Abstract Details

2008, Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, Art History (Fine Arts).
The global phenomenon of hip-hop emerged as a small scale community oriented culture developed primarily by African-American youth in the blighted ghetto of the South Bronx. In the midst of racial tensions and economic disparity in the post civil rights era, hip-hop became the authoritative voice of sub-cultural resistance. Within the larger American culture, the primary associations of hip-hop are rooted in conceptions of black culture and identity, which may also be defined as "blackness." Despite hip-hop's synonymous relationship to "blackness," mainstream American culture and almost every nation on earth have appropriated its visual and aural codes. Interestingly, the adoption of hip-hop culture out of its original context lends to new conceptions of "blackness," that ultimately complicate the centrality of racial significance. In a similar manner, the term "post-black" has been used within visual arts to describe the work of black artists who problematize past conceptions of "blackness." To expand upon the interpretation of this term "post-black" defines a new consciousness that is increasingly disengaged with traditional cultural codes of "blackness" and interested in expressing the individual experience versus the collective black experience. No longer referencing Africa for cultural validation or dredging up memories of slavery, "post-black"describes the subtext of race within the work of black artists who are not primarily concerned with race. The concept of "post-black" can thus be used as the basis of a theory that responds to the impossibility of a concrete definition of "blackness." A "post-black" aesthetic is therefore one that embodies contradictions between perceived notions of "blackness" by rejecting, embracing, parodying, amplifying, and ultimately transforming cultural codes of race. The main goal of this thesis is to argue that the transformation of "blackness" in hip-hop is directly applicable to the idea of "post-black." In a threefold investigation: The first chapter will fore ground the concept of "post-black" through examining the genealogy of "blackness" and its visual manifestations within art and hip-hop culture. In hip-hop and also throughout the course of black expressive culture in America, both black cultural producers and participants within mainstream culture have had a direct influence on the ways in which "blackness" is imagined or re-imagined. This chapter will investigate how "blackness" was a state of being first constructed at the hands of whites and then how the designation of "blackness" was latter shaped by blacks themselves. The second chapter consists of a discussion of the significative purpose of "post-black" and its contingency on the realms of public and private cultural space. The final chapter will present an extensive visual analysis of "post-black" represented in hip-hop culture, through utilizing fashion advertisements, album covers, music videos, and graphic art.
Jeanette Klein, PhD (Committee Chair)
Marion Lee, PhD (Committee Member)
Marina Peterson, PhD (Committee Member)
90 p.
African Americans; Art History
post-black, hip-hop, blackness; hip hop in art

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sunami, A. J. (2008). Transforming “Blackness”: “Post-Black” and Contemporary Hip-Hop in Visual Culture [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1219161375

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sunami, April. Transforming “Blackness”: “Post-Black” and Contemporary Hip-Hop in Visual Culture. 2008. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1219161375.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sunami, April. "Transforming “Blackness”: “Post-Black” and Contemporary Hip-Hop in Visual Culture." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1219161375

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1219161375
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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.