Passing, Cultural Performance, and Individual Agency: Performative Reflections on Black Masculine Identity

Posted in Articles, Arts, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Passing on 2011-02-01 22:24Z by Steven

Passing, Cultural Performance, and Individual Agency: Performative Reflections on Black Masculine Identity

Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies
Volume 4, Number 3
pages 377-404
DOI: 10.1177/1532708603259680

Bryant Keith Alexander, Acting Dean and Professor of Communication Studies
California State University, Los Angeles

This performative article uses the trope of “passing” as reference to crossing racial identity borders as well as to intra/interracial issues of identity and authenticity. Passing is constructed as a performative accomplishment and assessment by both the group claimed and the group denied. This article is structured around three divisions—passing as cultural performance, the social construction of identity, and the quest for self-definition of socially mediated expectations. All issues are centered within the specific concerns of Black masculine identity. In the process, the essay also seeks to establish the notion of an integrative ethnography of performance that envelops the critique of a performance as a part of the overall textual presentation of experience.

Read or purchase the article here.

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