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Document Details : Title: A Feminist-Theological Atlantic Subtitle: Reflections from European-U.S.-American Hybrids Author(s): SCHOLZ, Susan Journal: Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research Volume: 10 Date: 2002 Pages: 185-212 DOI: 10.2143/ESWTR.10.0.583316 Abstract : Although oceans are often perceived as dividers, historically they have served as great connectors of peoples, cultures, and religions. In “The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness,” Paul Gilroy describes the Atlantic Ocean as the connector of black people from Africa, Europe, and America throughout the modern era. In his view, a full appreciation of modernity presupposes an understanding of this watery connection. The international, transcultural reconceptualization of the Atlantic Ocean changes our views of the political and cultural history of black Americans, of black people in Europe, and of their contributions to the modern world. The reconceptualization moves us beyond “the binary opposition between national and diaspora perspective.” The “black Atlantic world” emerges as “a webbed network, between the local and the global.” Thus, it is not dualistic divisions between “insiders” and “outsiders” but complex ties between Africa, Europe, and America that have shaped modern consciousness. Understood as a huge cultural and political system, the Atlantic Ocean makes visible the “inescapable hybridity and intermixtureof ideas,” Gilroy claims. |
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