The afterlife of reproductive slavery : biocapitalism and Black feminism's philosophy of history
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The afterlife of reproductive slavery : biocapitalism and Black feminism's philosophy of history
Duke University Press, 2019
- : pbk
Available at / 1 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-273) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In The Afterlife of Reproductive Slavery Alys Eve Weinbaum investigates the continuing resonances of Atlantic slavery in the cultures and politics of human reproduction that characterize contemporary biocapitalism. As a form of racial capitalism that relies on the commodification of the human reproductive body, biocapitalism is dependent upon what Weinbaum calls the slave episteme-the racial logic that drove four centuries of slave breeding in the Americas and Caribbean. Weinbaum outlines how the slave episteme shapes the practice of reproduction today, especially through use of biotechnology and surrogacy. Engaging with a broad set of texts, from Toni Morrison's Beloved and Octavia Butler's dystopian speculative fiction to black Marxism, histories of slavery, and legal cases involving surrogacy, Weinbaum shows how black feminist contributions from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s constitute a powerful philosophy of history-one that provides the means through which to understand how reproductive slavery haunts the present.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. Human Reproduction and the Slave Episteme 1
1. The Surrogacy/Slavery Nexus 29
2. Black Feminism as a Philosophy of History 61
3. Violent Insurgency, or "Power to the Ice Pick" 88
4. The Problem of Reproductive Freedom in Neoliberalism 111
5. A Slave Narrative for Postracial Times 147
Epilogue. The End of Men and the Black Womb of the World 177
Notes 187
Bibliography 243
Index 275
by "Nielsen BookData"