Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Philosophy
Advisor
Noël Carroll
Committee Members
Sandra Shapshay
Paul Taylor
Jonathan Gilmore
Subject Categories
Aesthetics | African American Studies | Ethics and Political Philosophy
Keywords
Horror, Film, Blackness, Mood
Abstract
Contemporary discussions of black or antiracist art are often haunted by an air of pessimism. This pessimism rests on the intuition that art cannot change the political realities of antiblackness and/or our relationships with blackness. In this dissertation, I resist this hegemonic view by arguing that black horror films generate a particular, politically-valuable aesthetic experience. Specifically, they allow us to experience blackness and black people as unintelligible. This, I argue, runs counter to everyday experience of blackness; when blackness appears unintelligible, we lose the sense of satisfied comprehension that characterizes our everyday experiences of it. I argue that these films accomplish this through the cultivation of what I call horror mood: an experience in which the world itself appears unintelligible. So long as we are not in that mood, the experience of radical unintelligibility I am after is impossible.
Recommended Citation
Whittaker, Nicholas P., "Black Horror Film and the Role of Mood in Race Perception" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6024
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, African American Studies Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons