“Double consciousness” in Jordan Peele and Toni Morrison

In a class discussion this morning, we considered the concept of "the sunken place" in Jordan Peele's "Get Out" (2017), where, one student said, Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) becomes "a spectator of his own life." After we had discussed that for a while, I mentioned a historical term for such self-spectatorship: the concept of "double consciousness" introduced by W. E. B. DuBois in his 1903 book "The Souls of Black Folk". This afternoon, in a discussion of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" (1970), we also turned to the concept of "double consciousness" in the description and story of Cholly Breedlove. Perhaps I will make the time soon to reread DuBois's book. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 5 March 2025)