The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

The Black Atlantic refers to the transnational, fractal structure of “cultural and political exchange and transformation” (15) among Black peoples in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. It exceeds the limits of nationalist and ethnic absolutist boundaries that have been used to demarcate lines of political and cultural expression in dominant narratives of modernity, which have been Eurocentric and Africentric. It is also marked by the doubleness and ambivalence of Black people in the West. The Black Atlantic frames Gilroy’s restructuring of Black politics and expressive cultures during modernity. The structure illuminates “the distinctive historical experiences of this diaspora’s populations [that] have created a unique body of reflections on modernity and its discontents which is an enduring presence in the cultural and political struggles of their descendants today” (45).

Black nationalism refers to advocacy for the self-determination and political autonomy of Black people in the form of their own separate nation. It is indicative of the integral role that Western and European conceptions and ideals play in the political strategies of the Black Atlantic when met with the experience of racialized being in the Western world. Gilroy deals with Black nationalism extensively throughout the book because, paradoxically, it relies on modern conceptions of the nation-state, while being facilitated by transnationalism.

Double consciousness is the theory articulated by W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folks: “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (126) that marks the experience of racialized being in the West. This sense of doubleness is a guiding principle in Gilroy’s articulation of the Black Atlantic, specifically the ambivalence of Black folks to the West and its modern ideals. This doubleness provides specific insights into Black people’s experience of modernity in the West, and in so doing, helps them produce theories of modernity that are simultaneously counter to and embedded in dominant Western thought.

Ethnic absolutism is the idea that biological race is the basis of human differentiation, and that ethnic minorities share the same culture, norms, and values. Gilroy critiques ethnic absolutism throughout The Black Atlantic because it runs counter to the multiplicity of and differentiation within the Black Atlantic, especially the transcultural exchange that characterizes the Black Atlantic.

Eurocentrism is the opposite of Africentrism: It posits European people, culture, and histories as the center and source of Western civilization. It assumes universalisms and treats people of color as marginal, non-factoring entities in world history and Western civilization. Gilroy critiques Eurocentrism’s conceptions and debates of modernity specifically for its assumption of a universal experience of modernity and the modern self across geographical and identity borders.

Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation. Although originally used to refer to interpretations of biblical texts, in The Black Atlantic it refers to intercultural and transnational dialogue, exchange, and methods of communication that have been integral to Black Atlantic thinkers’ articulations of modernity and racialized being. Gilroy uses hermeneutics in his analyses of Black expression, and he implies that it allows for greater understanding of the changes, breaks, and re-combinations of Black political identities and cultural expressions.

In dominant Eurocentric narratives, modernity marks the temporal boundary that distinguishes pre-Enlightenment modes of structuring political authority and subjectivities from Enlightenment ideals of rationality, science, humanism, and the nation-state as the foremost structure of political and cultural authority. It “crystallised with the revolutionary transformations of the West at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries and involved novel typologies and modes of identification” (2) and can be distinguished from postmodernism in dominant Eurocentric narratives. Gilroy argues that Black intellectuals have periodized modernity differently from their white counterparts, and have given it a different spatial aspect, which exceeds the boundaries of the nation-state. Diaspora consciousness brings temporal and spatial aspects together in the Black Atlantic’s understandings and articulations of Black modernity, which is marked by non-linearity, transnationalism, and the continuation of its legacy in contemporary times.

Nationalism refers to identification with a nation-state and support of its interests and political autonomy and authority, typically to the exclusion of other nation-states and other forms of identification. Gilroy critiques nationalism and its exclusionary principle throughout The Black Atlantic because it is an inadequate frame of reference for properly understanding and analyzing the political activity and cultural expressions of Black people in the West and the modern world, even when Black intellectuals and artists try to adhere to a nationalist framework.

Pan-Africanism is a global movement that encourages solidarity among continental Africans and people of African descent around the world. It is a primary example of diaspora consciousness as an integral aspect of Black political strategies. Gilroy refers to Pan-Africanism extensively throughout The Black Atlantic because the existence of Pan-Africanism supports his point about the transnational and intercultural nature of Black Atlantic political culture, as well as political and expressive strategies that can be traced back to modernity and the counterculture of modernity produced by Black thinkers.