Living with Death: Black American Trauma

Living with Death: Black American Trauma in the Age of the Spectacular examines what it means for Black Americans to be the subject-witness and consumer of Black pain, wounding and death in our current age of media spectacle. Engaging cultural pain studies, social psychology, trauma theory, media studies, and consumer culture theory, this research grapples with the impact of race and gender based trauma on the creation of collective Black American identity and cultural production. What does it mean in contemporary America to be Black and to be the subject of and witness to ongoing violence against Black bodies? How does the culture of media spectacle and consumption contribute to this negotiation? By answering these questions, Living With Death: Black American Trauma in the Age of the Spectacular seeks to illuminate how contemporary Black Americans live with death.