Creating a Black Vernacular Philosophy

Devonya N. Havis is associate professor of philosophy at Canisius College and the University at Buffalo.

• IntroductionChapter 1: Performative UtteranceChapter 2: How to Slip the Yoke: The Black (W)Hole RitualChapter 3: Searching for the Black Difference: Black Philosophy and Redemption SongsChapter 4: A Critique of Black Philosophy: Rethinking Black Philosophical Re-appropriations of HumanismChapter 5: No More Redemption Songs: The Black Difference and AlterityConclusion

In this slim volume, Havis presents a complex, ambitious, original introduction to Black vernacular phenomena, i.e., experiences of alterity that accompany moments of indeterminacy or breakdown in conceptual structures and established power relations. Drawing on Foucault and Levinas, Havis argues that such phenomena emerge in playful, indirect acts of performance that critique the self-evidence of institutions and discourses, support the individual’s desire for a distinctive style of existence, and summon listeners to ethico-political concern for others and for alterity in general… [Havis's] quest to keep Black difference liminal rather than to capture it in a structure of theoretical distinctions—thereby perpetuating war between Black vernacular existence and disciplinary images of the Black—will intrigue those interested in Continental philosophy, theology, and African American studies. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.