A “Wokeness” that Never Was: The Affective Economy of White Innocence and the Possibilities of Shame
Date of Award
May 2020
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Religion
Advisor(s)
Gail Hamner
Keywords
affect, economy, innocence, liberal, subject, white
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
This thesis critiques white liberal subjectivity, primarily through the work of Claudia Rankine. In Rankine’s The White Card, she critiques white liberal subjectivity through the form of a play, a space of encounter. In the case of The White Card, the play’s primary encounter appears to be about white people encountering Black people, but in actuality the encounter resides in white people encountering their own white liberal subjectivity. In order to further conceive of how white liberal subjectivity functions, I draw from Gloria Wekker’s “white innocence” and Sara Ahmed’s “affective economies” to craft the lens of an affective economy of white innocence. An affective economy of white innocence demonstrates how affects both comprise collectivities, such as the white liberal subjectivity, as well as stratify collectivities from one another. In addition to Wekker and Ahmed, I place Rankine’s critique of white liberal subjectivity in dialogue with the works of thinkers such as Hortense Spillers, Franz Fanon, Sara Ahmed, and Saidiya Hartman. While the affect of guilt structures much of the white liberal subjectivity, I also consider how the affect of shame, as understood by George Yancy and James Cone, may access an otherwise to the white liberal subjectivity. Through these dialogues, I encounter the harms of white liberal subjectivities as well as an otherwise to white liberal subjectivities.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Murray, Hannah, "A “Wokeness” that Never Was: The Affective Economy of White Innocence and the Possibilities of Shame" (2020). Theses - ALL. 403.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/403
