double consciousness

See also: double-consciousness

English

Noun

double consciousness (uncountable)

1. The awareness of an African American of having two selves, their inward self and the self, created by how white people see them.
   • 2008, Danny Sexton, “Lifting the Veil: Revision and Double-Consciousness in Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth”, in Callaloo‎^[1], page 778:

     Double-consciousness is the African American’s awareness of possessing two souls: an outward self based largely on how whites perceive him and an inward self that he comes to realize as his truer self.

   • 1999, Lois Tyson, chapter 11, in Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, page 368:

     Postcolonial theorists often describe the colonial subject as having a double consciousness or double vision, in other words, a consciousness or way of perceiving the world that is divided between two antagonistic worlds, a consciousness or way of perceiving the world that is divided between two antagonistic cultures: that of the colonizer and that of the indigenous community.