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Embodying the Nonhuman, Embracing the Alien: The Hyperbolic Strangeness of Blackness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2021

Jan-Therese Mendes Open the ORCID record for Jan-Therese Mendes [Opens in a new window]
Jan-Therese Mendes*
Affiliation:
Centre for Gender Studies, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
*
jan.mendes@uis.no
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Abstract

Contemplating the techniques of white nationalism used to refuse Black ontology and deny Black belonging to the humanity of Canadian nationhood, this article considers how art imaginatively visualizes rebellion against the racist logics that regulate such denials. Exploring the function of hyperbole, this article examines the ways the willfully heightened strangeness of the extraterrestrial Afro-Astronaut and Black Muslim monster depicted in performance and visual art trouble racial matrixes through the dissonance provoked by the Other's unfamiliar display of excess.

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Article
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Hypatia , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , Fall 2021 , pp. 748 - 763
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hypatia, a Nonprofit Corporation

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