This dissertation undertakes a black ecocritical study of the trope of water in African Diasporic Literature. Over the course of three chapters treating fiction, drama, and photography, in a study both multi-generic and interdisciplinary in scope, I illuminate the ways in which black literature recursively figures the problem of being black in terms of a recurring crisis of having no ground that originates with and is haunted by the waters of Middle Passage. However, beyond its traumatic associations with the slave trade, I also argue, following the aesthetic philosophy of Gaston Bachelard, that water provides the feature element of what I call the \"material imagination of blackness.\" That is, a poetic and ethical imagination informed by the physiopoetic properties of water that inspires both black literary creation and enactments of black social life.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation undertakes a black ecocritical study of the trope of water in African Diasporic Literature. Over the course of three chapters treating fiction, drama, and photography, in a study both multi-generic and interdisciplinary in scope, I illuminate the ways in which black literature recursively figures the problem of being black in terms of a recurring crisis of having no ground that originates with and is haunted by the waters of Middle Passage. However, beyond its traumatic associations with the slave trade, I also argue, following the aesthetic philosophy of Gaston Bachelard, that water provides the feature element of what I call the "material imagination of blackness." That is, a poetic and ethical imagination informed by the physiopoetic properties of water that inspires both black literary creation and enactments of black social life.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Howard, Jonathan"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Mackey, Nathaniel"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017","date_published":"2017","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:06:57Z","subjects":["African American studies","Environmental studies","Black studies","August Wilson","black aesthetics","ecocriticism","Middle Passage","oceanic studies"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14514","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Mackey, Nathaniel"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Howard, Jonathan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2017-05-16T17:28:37Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-04-26T08:17:07Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2017"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["African American studies","Environmental studies","Black studies","August Wilson","black aesthetics","ecocriticism","Middle Passage","oceanic studies"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14514"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation undertakes a black ecocritical study of the trope of water in African Diasporic Literature. Over the course of three chapters treating fiction, drama, and photography, in a study both multi-generic and interdisciplinary in scope, I illuminate the ways in which black literature recursively figures the problem of being black in terms of a recurring crisis of having no ground that originates with and is haunted by the waters of Middle Passage. However, beyond its traumatic associations with the slave trade, I also argue, following the aesthetic philosophy of Gaston Bachelard, that water provides the feature element of what I call the \"material imagination of blackness.\" That is, a poetic and ethical imagination informed by the physiopoetic properties of water that inspires both black literary creation and enactments of black social life.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"Inhabitants of the Deep\": Water and the Material Imagination of Blackness"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Mackey, Nathaniel"],"dc:creator":["Howard, Jonathan"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2017-05-16T17:28:37Z"],"dc:date.available":["2019-04-26T08:17:07Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2017"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation undertakes a black ecocritical study of the trope of water in African Diasporic Literature. Over the course of three chapters treating fiction, drama, and photography, in a study both multi-generic and interdisciplinary in scope, I illuminate the ways in which black literature recursively figures the problem of being black in terms of a recurring crisis of having no ground that originates with and is haunted by the waters of Middle Passage. However, beyond its traumatic associations with the slave trade, I also argue, following the aesthetic philosophy of Gaston Bachelard, that water provides the feature element of what I call the \"material imagination of blackness.\" That is, a poetic and ethical imagination informed by the physiopoetic properties of water that inspires both black literary creation and enactments of black social life.
"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14514"],"dc:subject":["African American studies","Environmental studies","Black studies","August Wilson","black aesthetics","ecocriticism","Middle Passage","oceanic studies"],"dc:title":["\"Inhabitants of the Deep\": Water and the Material Imagination of Blackness"],"dc:type":["Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:06:57Z"}