The Quantum Eye: Looking and Identity Formation in African-American Fiction

"The Quantum Eye: Looking and Identity Formation in African-American Fiction" argues for a careful re-reading of the notion of double-consciousness in the African-American literary tradition. In that tradition, an inescapable racial consciousness is constructed largely through the operations of sight. Toni Morrison's novels, echoing developments in quantum physics, reconceptualize both W.E.B DuBois' idea of double consciousness and the role of sight in racial experience. In doing so, Morrison imagines alternative notions of identity construction based on looking that have not been adequately investigated to this point.