Examining black performance practices that critique Western humanism, R. A. Judy offers an extended meditation on questions of blackness, the human, epistemology, and the historical ways in which the black being is understood.

List of Illustrations  ix
Notes on Translation and Transliteration  xi
Preface: Preliminary Signposts  xiii
Acknowledgments  xxi
Introduction: Body and Flesh  1
[1st Set]
On Lohengrin's Swan  25
Sentient Flesh  150
[2nd Set]
Sentient Flesh Dancing  215
Poi¿sis in Black  252
Para-Semiosis  319
Coda: Gifting Blues Love-Improper  418
Notes  457
Bibliography  543
Index  573