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Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity

Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity

By Pinder, Sherrow O.

Published by State University of New York Press

English 234 pages 2021
Estimated reading time: 4 h 17 min
PDF

About this book

A close examination of the complexity inherent in Michael Jackson's ambiguous racial identity. In Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity, Sherrow O. Pinder explores the ways in which the late singer's racial identification process problematizes conceptualizations of race and the presentation of blackness that reduces blacks to a bodily mark. Pinder is particularly interested in how Michael Jackson simultaneously performs his racial identity and posits it against strict binary racial definitions, neither black nor white. While Jackson's self-fashioning deconstructs and challenges the corporeal notions of "natural bodies" and fixed identities, negative readings of the King of Pop fuel epithets such as "weird" or "freak," subjecting him to a form of antagonism that denies the black body its self-determination. Thus, for Jackson, racial identification becomes a deeply ambivalent process, which leads to the fragmentation of his identity into plural identities. Pinder shows how Jackson as a racialized subject is discursively confined to a "third space," a liminal space of ambivalence.

Availability

Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity is available as PDF at 9 online bookshops. Bookshops carrying it include Bajalibros Argentina, Bajalibros Latam, Bookshop Uruguay.

Language
English
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In what formats is Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity available?
Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity is available as PDF at 9 online bookshops.
Where can I buy Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity?
You can buy Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity at Bajalibros Argentina, Bajalibros Latam, Bookshop Uruguay. Compare every option in the list on this page.
How long does it take to read Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity?
At an average reading pace, Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity takes about 4 h 17 min to read (234 pages).

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