Abstract

MEZZADRA, Sandro. El New Deal en la línea del color: El problema de la reforma y el espacio de la democracia en W. E. B. Du Bois. Prismas [online]. 2008, vol.12, n.1. ISSN 1852-0499.

The essay investigates some key aspects of the political and theoretical reflections of W. E. B. Du Bois, the leading African-American intellectual and activist in the first half of the 20th Century. The author shows how in his intellectual training a practice of "Atlantic crossings" and an intense dialogue with European culture progressively led to the discovery of what has been called by Paul Gilroy the "Black Atlantic". Du Bois developed a vivid "geographical imagination" in his ongoing confrontation with the issue of "race", constructing original political spaces within which he increasingly framed African-American political experience and activism. His role as an initiator of the pan-African movement is particularly important in this regard. From this point of view, an interpretation of Du Bois' historical masterpiece -Black Reconstruction (1935)- as well as of his political positions during the New Deal is proposed: in the time of crisis inaugurated by the Great Depression, Du Bois highlights the "global" relevance of the defeat of the democratic experiment of the "reconstruction", while he proposes a peculiar project of radicalization of democracy starting from the development and deepening of black power.

Keywords : W. E. B. Du Bois: political thought; African-American modernity; Black Marxism; New Deal; Race.

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