Angela Stercken

The concept of the Black Atlantic has been used to look at Black culture on all sides of the Atlantic in the context of migration, diaspora, and hybridity. This two-volume publication explores philosophical notions and aesthetic forms of temporality in the Black Atlantic. The authors trace a transnational political and aesthetic emancipation movement of intellectuals and artists from the 1930s to the 1980s and beyond. In the second volume, Angela Stercken shows how temporality and blackness have become catalysts of a political and aesthetic repositioning in the United States in the context of Négritude and global debates since the 1940s/50s. With conceptual interventions in urban space, temporal figurations of a Black Aesthetic, and transmedia forms of distribution, a global contemporariness gains weight in the 1960s/70s, with repercussions until today.

This volume is dedicated to the interrelation between temporality and representation. It presumes that time cannot be conceived of as an abstract chronometric order, but that it is referring to materiality, being measured, represented, expressed, recognized, experienced and evaluated, and therefore is always closely related to cultural contexts of perception and evaluation. The contributions from various disciplines are dedicated to the present and its plural conditions and meanings. They provide insights into the state of research with special emphasis on the global present as well as on art and aesthetics from the 18th century until today. The anthology includes contributions by Mieke Bal, Stefan Binder, Maximilian Bergengruen, Iris Därmann, Gabriele Genge, Boris Roman Gibhardt, Boris Groys, Maria Muhle, Johannes F. Lehmann, Nkiru Nzegwu, Francesca Raimondi, Christine Ross, Ludger Schwarte, Angela Stercken, Samuel Strehle, Timm Trausch, Patrick Stoffel, and Christina Wessely.