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Empire of Ruin: Black Classicism and American Imperial Culture

book cover: photo of greek building with columns
  • Advances a new theory of "black classicism"
  • Considers the function of classicism within American culture at large and reads black classicism as part of a larger critique of that culture
  • Argues that classicism functions as a "language of power" and is itself central to the cultural hegemony that underlies and authorizes the regime of oppression and enslavement