Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

7-8-2008

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals

Abstract

In recent years idealist approaches and discourse analysis have moved to the fore Perhaps inspired by Continental philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault and by trends in literary criticism and theory many contemporary critical race theorists work almost entirely in the realm of discourse Although the occasional realist work does make an appearance Critical Race Theory today is almost entirely dominated by the analysis of text discourse and mindset The study of race has supplanted the study of raceA new collection illustrates this shift Crossroads Directions and a New Critical Race Theory edited by three members of the new generation of critical theorists brings the ascension of discourse analysis into bold relief With essays on narrative voice the heroic essentialism antiessentialism and the blackwhite binary paradigm of race Crossroads which grew out of a recent Critical Race Theory conference at Yale Law School constitutes a major implicit statement in favor of discourse analysis and against the materialistrealist approaches of the movements founding figuresThis Essay begins in Part II by outlining the history of Critical Race Theory and showing how a little recognized split between the two types of theories developed Part III summarizes Crossroads and shows how it falls almost entirely on the side of discourse analysis Part IV explains the limits of this approach and how it fails to even explain changes in the very racial consciousness it seeks to understand Part V offers a materialist explanation for the recent turn Part VI describes a radically different book written recently by Derrick Bell one of the movements founding figures and Part VII concludes by sketching some issues that the next major volume of critical race writing should address

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