Sheldon George

‘Whiteness’ is an omnipresent term within research on race and racism. This book differs from existing conceptualizations by adopting a psychoanalytic line of approach and by directing its attention to a particular socio-historical instantiation of whiteness—the investments, fantasies and fears apparent within (post) apartheid South African contexts. It foregrounds the notion of ‘white anxiety’, which is conceptualized not only via notions of psychical temporality, but with reference to the dystopian visions of the future, ideas of inter-generational guilt, and fantasies of demise. To posit an imagined ‘end to whiteness’ is not, of course, an uncontroversial gesture; the closing section of the book surveys the key themes—antisemitism, white Nationalism, the trope of the race traitor—in online attacks the author was subjected to. This compelling work will appeal to all those with an interest in psychoanalytic approaches to race and racism, and to anyone working in the areas of critical race and whiteness studies.

African American identity is racialized. And this racialized identity has animated and shaped political resistance to racism. Hidden, though, are the psychological implications of rooting identity in race, especially because American history is inseparable from the trauma of slavery.In Trauma and Race author Sheldon George begins with the fact that African American racial identity is shaped by factors both historical and psychical. Employing the work of Jacques Lacan, George demonstrates how slavery is a psychic event repeated through the agencies of racism and inscribed in racial identity itself. The trauma of this past confronts the psychic lack that African American racial identity both conceals and traumatically unveils for the African American subject. Trauma and Race investigates the vexed, ambivalent attachment of African Americans to their racial identity, exploring the ways in which such attachment is driven by traumatic, psychical urgencies that often compound or even exceed the political exigencies called forth by racism.

African American identity is racialized. And this racialized identity has animated and shaped political resistance to racism. Hidden, though, are the psychological implications of rooting identity in race, especially because American history is inseparable from the trauma of slavery. In Trauma and Race author Sheldon George begins with the fact that African American racial identity is shaped by factors both historical and psychical. Employing the work of Jacques Lacan, George demonstrates how slavery is a psychic event repeated through the agencies of racism and inscribed in racial identity itself. The trauma of this past confronts the psychic lack that African American racial identity both conceals and traumatically unveils for the African American subject. Trauma and Race investigates the vexed, ambivalent attachment of African Americans to their racial identity, exploring the ways in which such attachment is driven by traumatic, psychical urgencies that often compound or even exceed the political exigencies called forth by racism.