Techno-Prosthetic Romantic FuturismStrange Fruit"Thus I hung, without any crime committed, and without judge or jury, merely because I was a freeman, and could not by the law get any redress from a white person in those parts of the world. I was in great pain from my situation, and cried and begged very hard for some mercy, but all in vain." [1] What would it mean to hear this complaint? It echoes down the centuries. It comes wrapped, let's face it, in a shroud of self-congratulating white criticism. What kind of judge and jury are we, Equiano's white critics? [2] Notes1.Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1995), 212. 2. Obviously not an all-inclusive category. See--and hear--the important work of Marlon Ross, "Race in/of Romanticism: Toward a Critical Race Theory," lecture delivered at Penn State, October 21, 2005. See too Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "Introduction" to his edition, The Classic Slave Narratives (New York, Mentor: 1985), ix-xviii. Navigation |