Related Experiment Videos
Josephine Baker: psychoanalysis and the colonial fetish
1Department of English, University of California, Berkeley 94720-1030, USA. anneacheng@gmail.com
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
|February 18, 2006
Summary
This study explores racial fetishism in Western colonial contexts, using Josephine Baker as a case study. It reveals how racial fantasies shaped aesthetic judgments and disrupted colonial perceptions of the "other."
Area of Science:
- Cultural Studies
- Postcolonial Studies
- Aesthetics
Background:
- Examines the historical intersection of racial fantasy, aesthetic judgment, and inter-subjective recognition within Western colonial contexts.
- Focuses on the concept of fetishism, encompassing both sexual and racial dimensions, to understand persistent cultural disturbances.
- Utilizes the 1920s entertainment icon Josephine Baker as a central case study.
Discussion:
- Analyzes how Baker's persona both articulated and disrupted the colonial white male imagination.
- Investigates the construction and impact of the racial fetish in historical and contemporary settings.
- Connects aesthetic representation to the broader cultural challenges of recognizing the racial and sexual "other."
Key Insights:
- Josephine Baker's representation challenged and shaped colonial perceptions of race, sexuality, and otherness.
- Racial fetishism reveals deep-seated disturbances in inter-subjective recognition within colonial power dynamics.
- Aesthetic judgments are intrinsically linked to racial fantasies and colonial ideologies.
Outlook:
- Further research can explore contemporary manifestations of racial fetishism in media and popular culture.
- Investigating the long-term psychological and cultural impacts of racial fetishism is crucial.
- Comparative studies across different colonial histories can offer broader insights into inter-subjective recognition.