Suchergebnisse

W. E. B. Du Bois's use of the trope of double consciousness in his early narratives is analyzed to show that this epitomized expression of African American existence is based on a priority of the romantic over the realistic & the spiritual over the material. The etymology of the word consciousness & the genealogy of the notion of double consciousness are traced from medieval English philosophy, through Johan Wolfgang Goethe & Ralph Waldo Emerson, to Du Bois. Double consciousness describes the cultural character of the African race in America for Du Bois because he calls for the "Talented Tenth" to be the moral & cultural leaders of the race, while he recognizes that this race feels itself to be inferior. It is argued that the racial, class, & cultural dualisms of Du Bois's day were translated through his dialogical imagination into a spiritual & moral triumph that existed simultaneously with physical & psychological defeat. H. von Rautenfeld