Contemporary discussions of black or antiracist art are often haunted by an air of pessimism. This pessimism rests on the intuition that art cannot change the political realities of antiblackness and/or our relationships with blackness. In this dissertation, I resist this hegemonic view by arguing that black horror films generate a particular, politically-valuable aesthetic experience. Specifically, they allow us to experience blackness and black people as unintelligible. This, I argue, runs counter to everyday experience of blackness; when blackness appears unintelligible, we lose the sense of satisfied comprehension that characterizes our everyday experiences of it. I argue that these films accomplish this through the cultivation of what I call horror mood: an experience in which the world itself appears unintelligible. So long as we are not in that mood, the experience of radical unintelligibility I am after is impossible.
","abstract_html":"<p>Contemporary discussions of black or antiracist art are often haunted by an air of pessimism. This pessimism rests on the intuition that art cannot change the political realities of antiblackness and/or our relationships with blackness. In this dissertation, I resist this hegemonic view by arguing that black horror films generate a particular, politically-valuable aesthetic experience. Specifically, they allow us to experience blackness and black people as unintelligible. This, I argue, runs counter to everyday experience of blackness; when blackness appears unintelligible, we lose the sense of satisfied comprehension that characterizes our everyday experiences of it. I argue that these films accomplish this through the cultivation of what I call horror mood: an experience in which the world itself appears unintelligible. So long as we are not in that mood, the experience of radical unintelligibility I am after is impossible.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Whittaker, Nicholas P"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Philosophy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Noël Carroll"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Sandra Shapshay","Paul Taylor","Jonathan Gilmore"],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:57Z","subjects":["Aesthetics","African American Studies","Ethics and Political Philosophy","Horror","Film","Blackness","Mood"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6024","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Noël Carroll"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Sandra Shapshay","Paul Taylor","Jonathan Gilmore"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Whittaker, Nicholas P"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-09-16T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Aesthetics","African American Studies","Ethics and Political Philosophy","Horror","Film","Blackness","Mood"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6024"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Contemporary discussions of black or antiracist art are often haunted by an air of pessimism. This pessimism rests on the intuition that art cannot change the political realities of antiblackness and/or our relationships with blackness. In this dissertation, I resist this hegemonic view by arguing that black horror films generate a particular, politically-valuable aesthetic experience. Specifically, they allow us to experience blackness and black people as unintelligible. This, I argue, runs counter to everyday experience of blackness; when blackness appears unintelligible, we lose the sense of satisfied comprehension that characterizes our everyday experiences of it. I argue that these films accomplish this through the cultivation of what I call horror mood: an experience in which the world itself appears unintelligible. So long as we are not in that mood, the experience of radical unintelligibility I am after is impossible.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Black Horror Film and the Role of Mood in Race Perception"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Noël Carroll"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Sandra Shapshay","Paul Taylor","Jonathan Gilmore"],"dc:creator":["Whittaker, Nicholas P"],"dc:date.available":["2024-09-16T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Contemporary discussions of black or antiracist art are often haunted by an air of pessimism. This pessimism rests on the intuition that art cannot change the political realities of antiblackness and/or our relationships with blackness. In this dissertation, I resist this hegemonic view by arguing that black horror films generate a particular, politically-valuable aesthetic experience. Specifically, they allow us to experience blackness and black people as unintelligible. This, I argue, runs counter to everyday experience of blackness; when blackness appears unintelligible, we lose the sense of satisfied comprehension that characterizes our everyday experiences of it. I argue that these films accomplish this through the cultivation of what I call horror mood: an experience in which the world itself appears unintelligible. So long as we are not in that mood, the experience of radical unintelligibility I am after is impossible.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6024"],"dc:subject":["Aesthetics","African American Studies","Ethics and Political Philosophy","Horror","Film","Blackness","Mood"],"dc:title":["Black Horror Film and the Role of Mood in Race Perception"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Philosophy"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:57Z"}