Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
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This paper explores the cultural relevance of hip-hop music in understanding and analyzing the complex social, political, and cultural issues affecting African American men in America. Focusing on...Show moreThis paper explores the cultural relevance of hip-hop music in understanding and analyzing the complex social, political, and cultural issues affecting African American men in America. Focusing on the recognition of hip-hop as a legitimate form of culture, it investigates how this art form prioritizes the voices of the oppressed, providing a window for outsiders to grasp the lived experiences of black life. By examining the concepts of double consciousness and structural violence, as theorized by W.E.B. Du Bois and Fanon, the paper delves into the personal and individual complexities experienced by African American men. It further explores the role of the mass incarceration of African American men as a result of the War on Drugs, emphasizing how this perpetuates a forced criminal narrative. Finally, it addresses the role of racial discourse in the critique of violent rap music and its impact on the perpetuation of the criminal narrative.Show less
The focus in Afrofuturist scholarship has always been on the ways in which the black experience, particularly the forcible dislocation of the Middle Passage, has been akin to sensations of...Show moreThe focus in Afrofuturist scholarship has always been on the ways in which the black experience, particularly the forcible dislocation of the Middle Passage, has been akin to sensations of alienation and “Othering” explored in science fiction and speculative fiction. While a range of technologies have been analyzed in the context of Afrofuturism, from sonic, to digital, to even aerospace technologies, I argue in this thesis that there is a gap in scholarship on the medical technologies that undergird the alienation experienced by African Americans. To fill this gap, my research focuses on two works of fiction, Ralph Ellison’s classic novel Invisible Man (1952) and Jordan Peele’s recent movie Get Out (2017), that deal with the oppressive power of medicine. I argue that in both narratives medical experiments are used to take control over black bodies and minds, and I position this political violence into a history of medical experimentation and abuse on African Americans as well as Afrofuturism. As much as the medical mistreatment that the protagonists in these texts suffer seems exclusive to the world of science fiction, it has been, and might continue to be, part of the real experience of black Americans.Show less
This thesis looks at the concept of double consciousness through a comparison of hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar's albums 'To Pimp a Butterfly' (2015) and 'DAMN.' (2017). To capture the...Show moreThis thesis looks at the concept of double consciousness through a comparison of hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar's albums 'To Pimp a Butterfly' (2015) and 'DAMN.' (2017). To capture the particularities of the development of double consciousness in 'DAMN.', the author proposes to add the new concept of post-critical double consciousness to the theoretical field.Show less
