Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures

Funk. It is multisensory and multidimensional philosophy used in conjunction with the erotic, eroticism, and black erotica. It is the affect that shapes film, performance, sound, food, technology, drugs, energy, time, and the seeds of revolutionary ideas for black movements. But funk is also an experience to feel, to hear, to touch and taste, and in Funk the Erotic, L. H. Stallings uses funk in all its iterations as an innovation in black studies. Stallings uses funk to highlight the importance of the erotic and eroticism in Black cultural and political movements, debunking "the truth of sex" and its histories. Brandishing funk as a theoretical tool, Stallings argues that Western theories of the erotic fail as universally applicable terms or philosophies, and thus lack utility in discussions of black bodies, subjects, and culture. In considering the Victorian concept of freak in black funk, Stallings proposes that black artists across all media have fashioned a tradition that embraces the superfreak, sexual guerrilla, sexual magic, mama's porn, black trans narratives, and sex work in a post-human subject position. Their goal: to ensure survival and evolution in a world that exploits black bodies in capitalist endeavors, imperialism, and colonization. Revitalizing and wide-ranging, Funk the Erotic offers a needed examination of black sexual cultures, a discursive evolution of black ideas about eroticism, a critique of work society, a reexamination of love, and an articulation of the body in black movements.

Table of Contents:
CoverTitleContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Freaks, Sacred Subjectivity, and Public Spheres1.Sexual Magic and Funky Black Freaks in Nineteenth-Century Black Literature2.In Search of Our Mama's Porn: Genealogies of Black Women's Sexual Guerrilla Tactics3."Make Ya Holler You've Had Enough": Neutralizing Masculine Privilege with BDSM and Sex Work4.Marvelous Stank Matter: The End of Monogamy, the Marriage Crisis, and Ethical SluttingPart II. Superfreaks and Sites of Memory5.Sexuality as a Site of Memory and the Metaphysical Dilemma of Being a Colored Girl6.From the Freaks of Freaknik to the Freaks of Magic City: Black Women, Androgyny, Dance, and Prof7.Black Trans Narratives, Sex Work, and the Illusive FleshConclusion: Funk Studies—The B-SideNotesBibliographyIndex

About the Author :
L.H. Stallings is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Maryland-College Park.

Review :
Emily Toth Award for Best Single Work by One or More Authors in Women's Studies, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA), 2016 Finalist, 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, LGBT Studies, 2016 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association, 2016— Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) Emily Toth Award for Best Single Work by One or More Authors in Women's Studies, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA), 2016 Finalist, 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, LGBT Studies, 2016 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association, 2016  — LGBT Studies Emily Toth Award for Best Single Work by One or More Authors in Women's Studies, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA), 2016 Finalist, 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, LGBT Studies, 2016 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association, 2016— GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association