Black Is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics - Hardcover

by Paul C. Taylor (Author)

Black is Beautiful identifies and explores the most significant philosophical issues that emerge from the aesthetic dimensions of black life, providing a long-overdue synthesis and the first extended philosophical treatment of this crucial subject.

• The first extended philosophical treatment of an important subject that has been almost entirely neglected by philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of art
• Takes an important step in assembling black aesthetics as an object of philosophical study
• Unites two areas of scholarship for the first time - philosophical aesthetics and black cultural theory, dissolving the dilemma of either studying philosophy, or studying black expressive culture
• Brings a wide range of fields into conversation with one another- from visual culture studies and art history to analytic philosophy to musicology - producing mutually illuminating approaches that challenge some of the basic suppositions of each
• Well-balanced, up-to-date, and beautifully written as well as inventive and insightful
• Winner of The American Society of Aesthetics Outstanding Monograph Prize 2017
  

Back Jacket

Throughout black history and culture, aesthetics has long been a central concern for black thinkers and activists, and yet this important subject has been almost entirely neglected by philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of art. Black is Beautiful provides a long-overdue synthesis, identifying and exploring the most significant philosophical issues that emerge from the aesthetic dimensions of black life, both in the fine arts and beyond.

Taylor forges a basic philosophical framework for comprehending black aesthetics. The book consists of eight chapters, each of which discusses a web of related themes and phenomena. Each chapter begins with one or two illustrative real-world examples, and then uses the complexities of these opening cases to introduce the relevant issues.

This highly engaging book enables readers to see the multiplicity of the practices and themes gathered within the field and effectively overturns conceptual barriers that obstruct adequate recognition of the meanings of black cultural works. Black is Beautiful provides an original theory that fills a void in the expressive and theoretical resources in aesthetics literature.

Author Biography

Paul C. Taylor teaches Philosophy and African American studies at the Pennsylvania State University, where he has also served as Head of the Department of African American studies. Professor Taylor has provided commentary on race and politics for newspapers and radio shows on four continents. He is the author of Race: A Philosophical Introduction (Polity, 2003; 2nd ed. 2013), has recently completed On Obama (Routledge, 2015), and is one of the editors of the Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race (forthcoming).