In Sharon Holland’s chapter “Death and Nationalism” from her book Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity, she explores what it means to be black, in general, in American society. For Holland, being black is similar to being dead. To explain what she means she calls upon Orlando Patterson’s observations on ‘social death’ in his book Slavery and Social Death. Social death according to Patterson and Holland is, at a very basic level and explanation, the inability to engage with your heritage - mainly in Patterson’s case - and the inability to engage with the mainstream of society, to always be in the margins or outskirts - mainly in Holland’s case. Holland argues that black people are not seen as belonging to the mainstream. Instead, “in both popular culture and neonationalist rhetoric the black community is depicted as a nation within a nation” (Holland 24). This statement implies that the black community does not belong to the nation. It instead suggests that they are separate, different. They are on their own. They may live in America, but they are not really a part of it. It is in this sense that they are dead. And for Holland, one of the hallmarks of the dead is that they are unable to speak. They may be saying things, but society in general will not listen or take it to heart. And, according to Holland, society uses the dead’s lack of speech for its benefit.
Holland says that the dead “experience a second death… for their ‘desires’ not their ‘bodies’ are exhumed for use by the state. The ability of the emerging nation to speak hinges on its correct use of the ‘dead’ in the service of its creation” (Holland 28). The ‘living’ use the ‘dead’ to further their own agenda. Since the dead cannot speak, the living put words in their mouths. It is through this strain that I see the first connection to Bill T. Jones’ video A Good Man and the dance it documents Fervently Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray.
Jones notices and struggles with the fact that he has to come up with a dance about/commemorating a dead man – in this case, Abraham Lincoln. In A Good Man, Jones asks a lot of questions that he is unable to answer. Is Lincoln the Great Emancipator? Or was he just a politician? At one point Jones says, “I was always in the camp that this was a good man. Now, a good man – question mark? Or a good man – exclamation?” Jones is unable to answer. Everyone is unable to answer. Lincoln, the only man who would actually be able to, is dead. By making this dance, Jones has to answer these questions. He has to speak for the dead.
Another production that came to mind when I was reading Holland’s article and watching Jones’ videos was Suzan-Lori Park’s play “The America Play.”
The extremely strange and difficult to understand play centers around, for the most part, an unnamed black gravedigger who has an uncanny resemblance to Abe Lincoln. Because of this resemblance, he leaves his family – who eventually come to look for him - and gets into the business of impersonating. He sets up a chair and charges people for the opportunity to shoot him with a stage pistol – to re-enact Lincoln’s death. The play touches upon many things. Among these things are some black people’s feelings towards Abraham Lincoln – which makes me think of the Jones videos. It also touches upon the lack of engage-able history (which comes in when they talk about the ‘Great Hole of History’) and connection to mainstream American Society - where I see the Holland connection.
To read more about the play, check out the Wikipedia page... Or just google it and check out some reviews.
(Image courtesy of http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781559360920)
(Wikipedia link courtesy of Wikipedia.com)
I really enjoyed your post and am struck by the complexity of the meaning behind "The America Play". I understand that like you said, Americans feel the need to engage with their history and feel a strong personal connection to events. However, I think there is a lot of complication surrounding why people would want to re-enact the shooting of Lincoln. The complex feelings that Black people deal with surrounding Lincoln are even more complicated by situations like this. Sure, it might feel good to re-enact this event, but what about the color of the gravediggers skin? It would be interesting to explore how blackness complicates the meaning of this symbolic action. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed how you spoke of "The American Play." History with which you can engage is an incredibly difficult thing to produce. When dealing with an historical figure who we only know snip-its about,there is always going to be something (race, sex, sexuality, religion, or other controversial descriptors) that cannot fit well with the impersonator and which will change the meaning of the reenactment. Who paid to shoot the fake Abe? Were they white people who had hated what Lincoln had done? Were they black people who hated him for his racism? Were the majority of those who participated just out for a laugh and thought it would be an interesting and unique thing to do? Only in the death of these subjects are engagements with them possible for the general public. It's very interesting to think about.
ReplyDeletei agree with your perspective on Holland and her definition of social death within the african american community. I agree that black people feel like they arent apart of mainstream American (white) culture. However, I would add that Holland points out that there is no real heritage so black people arent just considered non white americans, they arent considered at all. We see this in Pittsburgh a lot with the redistricting and destroying the homes of low income black families in Pittsburgh.This is called urban renewal- yet the only people benefitting from this renewal are people that have nothing to lose in the first place. This small group excludes bodies that do not matter historically and socially, african american bodies.
ReplyDelete