"Second Sight": Acknowledging W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" as a Step Towards Dissolution
Abstract
This project examines American scholar W.E.B.’s DuBois’ idea of “double consciousness”, from his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903). The idea of “double consciousness” has and continues to be utilized by Black scholars and artists in literary, theoretical, and psychological contexts, some of which I hope my paper will adequately survey. I begin by examining “double consciousness” from the perspective of particulars by understanding Du Bois’s original idea and the specificities of the American context he himself was a part, considering the legacy of slavery. Then, by focusing primarily on writers such as Frantz Fanon, Richard Wright and Paul Gilroy, succeeding Du Bois, the paper will discuss the various subtleties of “doubleness” present in these works and how they can be cross-referenced to other historical and cultural movements. Framing this discussion in light of “double consciousness” as a “gift” or potential ability versus as a purely restrictive experience demonstrates how the antimonies of “doubleness” works to disprove specific kinds of dualism. Inadvertently the paper will advocate the need for a change in dialectics to centralize Black notions of Being into an academic tradition that has historically limited the definition of humanity.