welang

Ubiquitous triple consciousness frameworks address the limitations of W.E.B Du Bois’ seminal double consciousness concept by emphasizing a third gendered lens, a definite consciousness that legitimizes the rich complexities of the black American female experience.

In The Affirmative Discomforts of Black Female Authorship: Rethinking Triple Consciousness in Contemporary American Culture, the author rethinks this methodology by examining an interesting assemblage of contemporary black female authors (Roxane Gay, Beyoncé and Issa Rae) across four disciplines (history, literature, music and television) whose contemporary multimedia works are engaging with a third lens the author conceptualizes as rupture.

This rupture, a simultaneous embrace and rejection of racial and gendered experiences that are affirmative but also contradictory, unsettling and ultimately unresolved, problematizes hegemonic notions of identity and boldly moves towards a potential shift, a shift on the cusp of profound rethinking and reimagination.

Nahum N. Welang is assistant professor in English Language-Literature at the University of Stavanger (Norway).