Encoded Histories: Mapping African American Narratives through Digital Humanities and Lacanian Ethics

A compelling project that bridges African American Studies (AAS), Digital Humanities (DH), the ethics of care, the hermeneutics of suspicion, and Lacan’s four discourses.

Conceptual Framework

The project would aim to explore African American narratives, from slavery to contemporary movements, as mediated by cultural discourses (Master, University, Hysteric, and Analyst). It would combine DH tools for analyzing and visualizing historical data with theoretical perspectives rooted in the ethics of care and hermeneutics of suspicion.

Objectives

1. Survey Historical African American Texts and Contexts:

   • Compile a curated digital corpus of key texts, speeches, oral histories, and cultural artifacts from African American history, focusing on how they articulate resistance, identity, and care.

   • Examples: slave narratives, Harlem Renaissance poetry, speeches from the Civil Rights Movement, and tweets from #BlackLivesMatter.

2. Apply Lacan’s Four Discourses:

   • Analyze how African American narratives shift between Lacan’s four discourses, illustrating how power (Master), institutional knowledge (University), resistance and identity formation (Hysteric), and healing (Analyst) emerge in these texts.

   • Example: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech could be read as a move between the University and Analyst discourses, providing institutional critique while offering a reparative vision of care.

3. Integrate Ethics of Care:

   • Investigate how African American authors and activists position care as both an ethical and political act, particularly in response to systemic oppression and racial trauma.

   • Example: The mutual aid practices of the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children Program would be analyzed as an ethics of care within the Hysteric and Analyst discourses.

4. Adopt the Hermeneutics of Suspicion:

   • Use hermeneutics of suspicion to critically examine how mainstream histories, policies, and cultural representations encode systemic racism, while identifying subversive counter-narratives within African American texts.

5. Leverage DH Tools for Visualization:

   • Utilize DH methods to visualize historical shifts in African American discursive strategies. For instance:

     • Geospatial mapping of narratives (e.g., the movement of slave narratives or the distribution of Black newspapers).

     • Text mining to identify recurring themes of care and resistance across time.

     • Network analysis to trace connections between influential figures and movements.

Deliverables

1. Interactive Digital Archive:

   • A public-facing, open-access digital repository of African American texts annotated with insights from Lacan’s four discourses, the ethics of care, and hermeneutics of suspicion.

2. Data Visualizations:

   • Maps and infographics showing the evolution of African American discursive strategies in historical and cultural contexts.

3. Pedagogical Toolkit:

   • Lesson plans, digital tools, and interpretative guides for integrating this framework into survey courses in AAS.

4. Scholarly Monograph:

   • A theoretical work explaining how the integration of DH, Lacan’s four discourses, and ethical care provides new insights into African American narratives.

Pedagogical Integration

The project could serve as the backbone of a survey course in African American Studies that introduces students to:

• Theories of discourse, care, and suspicion as frameworks for historical analysis.

• Digital tools for humanities research and their application to African American history and culture.

• Critical questions about the ethics of representation, narrative agency, and the intersection of technology and race.

This project would extend the boundaries of AAS by combining rigorous theoretical analysis with practical DH applications, making it accessible and impactful both academically and publicly.