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- Copyright
- Copyright © 2022 by University of Oregon
- ISSN
- 0010-4124
- eISSN
- 1945-8517
- DOI
- 10.1215/00104124-9434550
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
This article looks at the influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early philosophy of language on the Black Arts Movement. Amiri Baraka’s essay / prose poem “Expressive Language” ends with a quotation from Wittgenstein: “Can the concept of God exist in a perfectly logical language?” The problem is that Wittgenstein never wrote this. In tracking the meaning of Baraka’s pseudo ascription, this essay situates Baraka’s early work in the context of midcentury philosophy of language and the linguistic turn. It argues that Baraka’s extensive engagement with the form and thought of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is crucially important in Baraka’s narration of his conversion from Beat bohemianism to Black nationalism. Baraka’s argument with Wittgenstein anticipates the concerns of a debate that occurred several years later between Hans Gadamer and Jürgen Habermas. Reading “Expressive Language” and Baraka’s poetry and autobiographical writing alongside the exchanges of the Gadamer-Habermas debate, the essay argues that Baraka’s writings challenge the identification of critique with progressive politics that informs the work of Habermas and Paul Gilroy.
Journal
Comparative Literature – Duke University Press
Published: Mar 1, 2022
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References
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The Black EcstaticAbdur-Rahman, Aliyyah I
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Placing Creeley’s Recent Work: A Poetics of ConjectureAltieri, Charles
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On the Criticism of Black American Literature: One View of the Black AestheticBaker, Houston A.Jr.
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Black Dada NihilismusBaraka, Amiri
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Logical Positivism, Language, and the Reconstruction of MetaphysicsBergman, Gustav Rorty, Richard
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Black Literature and LeRoi JonesBrown, Cecil M. Benston, Kimberly W.
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Criteria of Negro ArtDu Bois, W. E. B.
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My WittgensteinEagleton, Terry
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The Historicity of UnderstandingGadamer, Hans Mueller-Vollmer,
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Wittgenstein’s Reception in AmericaGarver, Newton
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African-American Existential PhilosophyGordon, Lewis R Lott, Tommy L. Pittman, John P.
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Hermeneutics and the Social SciencesHabermas, Jürgen Mueller-Vollmer,
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If You Hear Something Say Something; or, If You’re Not at the Table You’re on the MenuHofer, Jen
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The Habermas-Gadamer DebateMendelson, Jack
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Critical Theory and Hermeneutics: The Debate between Gadamer and HabermasMisgeld, Dieter O’Neill, John
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From the Shadows: Houston Baker’s Move toward a Postnationalist Appraisal of the Black AestheticNapier, Winston
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The Myth of the Counter-EnlightenmentNorton, Robert E
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‘Creative Writing’ among the Disciplines.” President’s ColumnPerloff, Marjorie
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Robert Creeley’s Radical PoeticsPerloff, Marjorie
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Enthusiasm: The Antiself of EnlightenmentPocock, J. G. A.
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Ethics and Culture: Habermas and Gadamer in DialogueRicoeur, Paul
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On the Ends of Afro-American ‘Modernist’ AutobiographyWerner, Craig
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Philosophy and the Afro-American ExperienceWest, Cornel Pittman, John P. Lott, Tommy L.
-
Amiri Baraka and the Music of Life: Blues People fifty years laterWoodard, Komozi
-
Love’s Emblem Lost: LeRoi Jones’s ‘Hymn for Lanie Poo.’Wright, Jay
-
The Black EcstaticAbdur-Rahman, Aliyyah I
-
Placing Creeley’s Recent Work: A Poetics of ConjectureAltieri, Charles
-
On the Criticism of Black American Literature: One View of the Black AestheticBaker, Houston A.Jr.
-
Black Dada NihilismusBaraka, Amiri
-
Logical Positivism, Language, and the Reconstruction of MetaphysicsBergman, Gustav Rorty, Richard
-
Black Literature and LeRoi JonesBrown, Cecil M. Benston, Kimberly W.
-
Criteria of Negro ArtDu Bois, W. E. B.
-
My WittgensteinEagleton, Terry
-
The Historicity of UnderstandingGadamer, Hans Mueller-Vollmer,
-
Wittgenstein’s Reception in AmericaGarver, Newton
-
African-American Existential PhilosophyGordon, Lewis R Lott, Tommy L. Pittman, John P.
-
Hermeneutics and the Social SciencesHabermas, Jürgen Mueller-Vollmer,
-
If You Hear Something Say Something; or, If You’re Not at the Table You’re on the MenuHofer, Jen
-
The Habermas-Gadamer DebateMendelson, Jack
-
Critical Theory and Hermeneutics: The Debate between Gadamer and HabermasMisgeld, Dieter O’Neill, John
-
From the Shadows: Houston Baker’s Move toward a Postnationalist Appraisal of the Black AestheticNapier, Winston
-
The Myth of the Counter-EnlightenmentNorton, Robert E
-
‘Creative Writing’ among the Disciplines.” President’s ColumnPerloff, Marjorie
-
Robert Creeley’s Radical PoeticsPerloff, Marjorie
-
Enthusiasm: The Antiself of EnlightenmentPocock, J. G. A.
-
Ethics and Culture: Habermas and Gadamer in DialogueRicoeur, Paul
-
On the Ends of Afro-American ‘Modernist’ AutobiographyWerner, Craig
-
Philosophy and the Afro-American ExperienceWest, Cornel Pittman, John P. Lott, Tommy L.
-
Amiri Baraka and the Music of Life: Blues People fifty years laterWoodard, Komozi
-
Love’s Emblem Lost: LeRoi Jones’s ‘Hymn for Lanie Poo.’Wright, Jay