Black Existentialism: Essays on the Transformative Thought of Lewis R. Gordon(Global Critical Caribbean Thought)

Few contemporary intellectuals have attempted to inform theory, the academy and social change as does Lewis Gordon. Following his own path of Fanon, Cesaire and Said, Gordon’s work is an urgent call to action that is critical ‘in the trying times’ in which we find ourselves. In this important book, international scholars from many disciplines and areas of life engage in Gordon’s work to prod, rattle and rethink our thinking to inform and change our practices as humans in institutions, politics, and the personal, legal and social paradigms. The book focuses on the importance of radical theory and thinkers to push for projects of change in the area of Black Existentialism. Gordon’s now extensive oeuvre personifies this. The essays use the work of Lewis Gordon to demonstrate how theory and thought be can used for transformation of existence, antiracism and critiques of alterity, resistance, pedagogy, political action theory and disciplinary decadence in the academy and beyond.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, danielle davis / 1. Towards a Radical Humanities, Nigel C. Gibson / 2. Against Bad Faith, for Living Thought: Towards a Pedagogy of Absences, Conflict and Emergences, Julia Suarez-Krabbe / 3. Consideration on the Theoretical Dimension of Lewis Ricardo Gordon’s Thought for Brazilian Intellectual Production, Rosemere Ferreira / 4. Sociotelic Reflections on Lewis Gordon’s Anticolonial Imagination, Walter R. Isaac / 5. The Revolutionary Language of Black Existentialism, Devon R. Johnson / 6. The Transformative Power of Lewis Gordon’s Africana Philosophy in Mandela’s House, Mabogo More / 7. Gordon and Feminism, Lisa M. Anderson / 8. I Can’t Quite Put My Finger On It: Racism’s Touch, Shirley Tate / 9. Lewis Gordon: Existential Incantations that Cross Borders and Move Us Forward, Catherine Walsh / 10. Plural Racial Ontologies, danielle davis / 11. A Phenomenological and Psychodynamic Reflection on Freedom and Oppression Following the Guiding Thread of Lewis Gordon’s Existential Phenomenology of Oppression, Marilyn Nissim-Sabat / 12. Lewis Gordon’s Existential Cartography, Molefi K. Asante / Dwelling Otherwise: A Conversation with Lewis Gordon and Sara Ahmed / Bibliography / Index

About the Author :
danielle davis has held tenured lectureships at the University of New South Wales and University of Technology, Queensland in Australia. She is currently an ongoing academic at the University of New England in Australia.

Review :
This book is a work of living philosophy. Grounded in the work one of our era’s great thinkers, it shows us how Lewis R. Gordon addresses the triumphs and failures of previous generations of philosophers, how today’s philosophers are extending his work, and it provides the contours of a rigorous philosophy that can guide us towards a bright future. This volume is an excellent collection of essays on the works of Lewis Gordon by a group of distinguished scholars, who not only know his work, but also the man. The essays are highly informative. They focus closely on Gordon's work, the scholars that he engaged, and those that have subsequently been engaged by his work. A strong contribution to the field of Africana philosophy. This is an excellent collection of essays by outstanding scholars who each reflect on how the work of Gordon transformed their own. The contributors come from disciplines such as Africana thought, Afrocentricity, Afro-Jewish studies, Black feminist thought, critical race studies, Fanonian studies, gender and feminist studies, philosophy and psychoanalysis. The essays offer insight into current scholarship on decoloniality, the politics of race, gender and identity, among others. A scrumptious collection indeed! This skilfully curated collection casts Lewis Gordon’s impressive œuvre as the subject of a virtual symposium. The gathering powerfully illuminates the heterogeneity, complexity and wealth of Black existentialism. If a tree is known by its fruit, Gordon ought to be celebrated and re-read carefully given the life overflowing the cover he provides. This volume is an excellent starting place. A work of huge importance for any theorist who wants to explore what davis herself calls the ‘human condition’, Black Existentialism taps into the diversity of scholarship that Gordon creatively informs. davis’ edited collection represents a prime opportunity to engage with the overall theme of the colonized/colonizing self and illuminates so well the complexity of that apparent binary.