Space, Place, and Self The (In)visible Archives of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric

Abstract

This essay examines (in)visibility in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric, focusing on how the processes of visibility interact with the identity of diasporic self. I discuss how the physical manifestations of (in)visibility are central to Black women living in the United States, as well as the detriments that augmented visibility has in the evolution of self. Through depictions of black (in)visibility in sport, media, relationships, and places, the recurring motif of visibility exposes the simultaneous burying and confronting of racial trauma that occurs in quotidian life. Throughout the novel, Rankine illuminates the unseen and repositions the hypervisible experiences of Black women in America to remind readers that the consequences of Black (in)visibility result in a physical, tangible manifestation that is etched into the social, cultural, and political landscape of individual and collective understanding. 

Winner of the 2024 Intersectional Social Justice Essay Prize (4th year category)