The Paralysis of Analysis in African American Studies

Stephen C. Ferguson II provides a philosophical examination of Black popular culture for the first time. From extensive discussion of the philosophy and political economy of Hip-Hop music through to a developed exploration of the influence of the postmodernism-poststructuralist ideology on African American studies, he argues how postmodernism ideology plays a seminal role in justifying the relationship between corporate capitalism and Black popular culture. Chapters cover topics such as cultural populism, capitalism and Black liberation, the philosophy of Hip-Hop music, and Harold Cruse's influence on the "cultural turn" in African American studies. Ferguson combines case studies of past and contemporary Black cultural and intellectual productions with a Marxist ideological critique to provide a cutting edge reflection on the economic structure in which Black popular culture emerged. He highlights the contradictions that are central to the juxtaposition of Black cultural artists as political participants in socioeconomic struggle and the political participants who perform the rigorous task of social criticism. Adopting capitalism as an explanatory framework, Ferguson investigates the relationship between postmodernism as social theory, current manifestations of Black popular culture, and the theoretical work of Black thinkers and scholars to demonstrate how African American studies have been shaped.

Stephen C. Ferguson II is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University, USA. He is co-author with John H. McClendon III of African American Philosophers and Philosophy (2019).

Acknowledgements Introduction Part I. The Corporatization of Black Culture 1. "Much To Do About Nothing": Black Popular Culture, Inc. 2. The James Brown Theory of Liberation: Black Capitalism, Bourgeois Cosmopolitanism and Black Liberation Part II. On Hip-Hop Music: Philosophical Considerations on Political Economic Contradictions 3. Listening to the Future in the Present: The Philosophy of Hip-Hop Music 4. The Political Economy of Hip-Hop Music Part III. Philosophy of African American Studies: Postmodernist Analysis and Political Paralysis 5. The "Cultural Turn" in African American Studies: From Harold Cruse to "Black Marxism" 6. Class Struggle in African American Studies: 7. The Paralysis of Poststructuralist PostmodernismAnalysis Notes Bibliography Index