David Farrell Krell

The Bodies of Black Folk: From Kant and Hegel to Du Bois and Baldwin

The bodies of black folk? The title is an impertinence. It ought to be a matter of the souls of black folk—precisely those souls that for entire epochs of European history have been denied spirit and intelligence. Yet have not these peoples also been denied their bodies, their multifarious bodies—bodies of the Earth and the world, bodies of nature, culture, and history? Have they not been denied their erotic and intelligent bodies, their free bodies? This essay consists of four parts. The first part, taking W. E. B. Du Bois’s sojourn in Germany as its inspiration, raises the question of studying abroad, particularly in Europe, for African Americans today. Such study was very important to the intellectual and artistic development of African American philosophers and writers during the past century, but today it is challenged by other pressing educational priorities and by other discourses.

Pitch: Genitality/Excrementality from Hegel to Crazy Jane

Telle me also, to what conclusion Were membres maad of generacion, And of so parfit wys a wight ywroght? Trusteth right wel, they were nat maad for noght. Glose whoso wole, and seye bothe up and doun, That they wer maked for purgacion Of uryne, and oure bothe thynges smale, Were eek to knowe a femele from a male, And for noon oother cause,-sey ye no? The experience woot wel it is noght so. So that the clerkes be nat with me wrothe, I sey this, that they maked ben for bothe, This is to seye, for office, and for ese Of engendrure, ther we nat God displese. Why sholde men elles in hir bookes sette That man shal yelde to his wyf hire dette? Now wherewith sholde he make his paiement,