Leiden University Student Repository

Quist, Dzifa (2020)

Basquiat's and Ofili's Double Consciousness: An Exploration of Transnational Black Identity Through African Diasporic Art.

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

People of African descent in the West share a similar experience of oppression through European colonization and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Such a shared experience has led to a transnational black consciousness. The black scholars W.E.B. DuBois and Frantz Fanon both discussed this concept, which describes an the existence of transnational black solidarity and identity, due to the subjugation to oppression. The black race has become the subject of negative discourses, a product of white supremacy and western hegemony. This thesis is a postcolonial reading of the artworks of black American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Black British artist Chris Ofili, through which we explore the transnational connection among the peoples of the African diaspora. With the use of semiotic analysis, we uncover the hidden meanings within Basquiat’s and Ofili’s work, analyzing the themes of being black in the West and being black in connection to the African diaspora.

Race

Diaspora

African diaspora

Transnational identity

Black identity

Double consciousness

Art

Author

Quist, Dzifa

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Culture and Politics

Supervisors

Thakur, Vineet

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en