Overview

In Queering Black Atlantic Religions Roberto Strongman examines Haitian Vodou, Cuban Lucumi/Santeria, and Brazilian Candomble to demonstrate how religious rituals of trance possession allow humans to understand themselves as embodiments of the divine. In these rituals, the commingling of humans and the divine produces gender identities that are independent of biological sex. As opposed to the Cartesian view of the spirit as locked within the body, the body in Afro-diasporic religions is an open receptacle. Showing how trance possession is a primary aspect of almost all Afro-diasporic cultural production, Strongman articulates transcorporeality as a black, trans-Atlantic understanding of the human psyche, soul, and gender as multiple, removable, and external to the body.

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9781478001973

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Reviews

Strongman's contribution is an innovative deployment of cultural studies that looks at art, performance, film, and literature to research the religiosity of African diaspora communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. . . . The work is ultimately an important and sophisticated addition to the growing consideration of the transnational aesthetics that interconnect different kinds of queerness, blackness, and spirituality in the Americas. -- Solimar Otero * Journal of Folklore Research * Strongman's expansion of transcorporeality is pivotal.... This book is a necessary read that contributes to the growing body of scholarship on gender and sexuality in African diasporic religions. . . . -- Eziaku Nwokocha * Reading Religion * [Strongman] pursues his materials with investigative prowess and scholarly verve, making this a major new reference point for scholarship on the subject. -- Kieth E. McNeal and Martin Tsang * New West Indian Guide * Strongman's exploration of the body in literary genres provides an excellent framework for a new understanding of the body, transcending the Cartesian dialectics. Strongman's three case studies present indeed the 'full queer potentiality.' -- Bettina E. Schmidt * Journal of Contemporary Religion * Strongman's audacity in exploring the evolution and intersection of Afro-Atlantic religiosity with queer bodies is a significant contribution to the literature and discourse on Afro-diasporic religions and cultural studies.... Strongman illustrates how scholarship can be expressive and an agent of radical transformation of social experience. -- Mary Nyangweso * Hypatia *

Strongman's contribution is an innovative deployment of cultural studies that looks at art, performance, film, and literature to research the religiosity of African diaspora communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. . . . The work is ultimately an important and sophisticated addition to the growing consideration of the transnational aesthetics that interconnect different kinds of queerness, blackness, and spirituality in the Americas. -- Solimar Otero * Journal of Folklore Research *

Author Information

Roberto Strongman is Associate Professor of Comparative Caribbean Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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