Citation

Sowers BP. J. Afr. Am. Stud. 2017; 21(1): 26-41.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12111-017-9339-7

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This essay examines the role of Platonic literature and philosophy in part 2 of Newton's (1973) Revolutionary Suicide (RS) and argues that Plato's Republic, as the seminal text in Newton's early adult life, intertextually directs the course of events, both the ways Newton describes the plight of Black America and how Newton engages other literary texts, poetry in particular. Over the course of part 2 of RS, Newton increasingly adopts the guise of a modern day Socrates, confounding his white opponents and revealing the truth about racial oppression. Studying prose texts, especially philosophy, becomes (inter)textually symbolic for racial enlightenment, on the one hand, and for the responsibility Newton sees of himself to share that enlightenment with those still chained in the dark recesses of the cave, on the other. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Language: en

Keywords

Black Panthers; Huey P. Newton; Plato; Republic; Revolutionary Suicide