AS BLACKNESS BERNS: AN AFROPESSIMIST READING OF BERNARD SANDERS’ 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENT “TOGETHER”

This thesis evaluates Bernard Sanders’ viral 2016 Presidential campaign advertisement Together using O’Connor’s theory of Moving-Image Documents. The image-documents are then used to perform a “structural” reading of the advertisement via the emerging literature on Afropessimism to determine why supporters of Sanders created such a powerful and loyal collective and his proposed revolution against the 1% is ethical and possible. I conclude that his supporters created affective community in response to Sanders’ multicultural ethos and that his revolution is in fact anti-black. Using the psychoanalytic theories of Afropessimism I also find the affective communities participate in the libidinal economy of antiblackness because of the psychic relief that participation brings.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Elijah Smith

• Affect

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/82255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/82255