African Masks and Emotions

In
Western European languages, the word mask exerts a powerful presence as a
figure of speech. To masquerade is to pretend to be someone or something one
is not. By extension, unmasking is
a heroic metaphor for exposing a hidden truth. In this volume, art historian
Z. S. Strother counters that narrative, using African case studies to offer
an alternative vision of masquerading. She explores the aesthetic emotions
aroused by masks, or more precisely, by "dances of masks": joy, wonder, awe,
fear, and the release of laughing out loud. She also investigates the
uncanny-a sensation of "delicious shiveriness" triggered when familiar spaces
and individuals become strange and changeable. Inspired by Strother's studies
in DR Congo, African Masks and Emotions takes a comparative perspective and moves emotion from the
periphery to the center of analysis.