Deadpan in/as Black Aesthetics
In this talk based on her award-winning book, Tina Post argues that inexpression is a gesture that acquires distinctive meanings in concert with blackness. Post tracks instances and meanings of deadpan—a vaudeville term meaning “dead face”—across literature, theater, visual and performance art, and the performance of self in everyday life. Her work reveals that the performance of purposeful withholding is a critical tool in the work of black culture makers, intervening in the persistent framing of African American aesthetics as colorful, loud, humorous, and excessive.
Date: 31 October 2024, 16:00 (Thursday, 3rd week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Rothermere American Institute, 1A South Parks Road OX1 3UB
Venue Details: Downstairs Seminar Room
Speaker: Tina Post (University of Chicago)
Organising department: Faculty of English Language and Literature
Organisers: Professor Nicholas Gaskill (University of Oxford), Professor Nicole King (University of Oxford)
Part of: American Literature Research Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Katy Terry, Hope Lukonyomoi-Otunnu