Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Her website provides more information about the author.

“Seeing the Unspeakable is an extremely important work. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is the first writer to place this controversial young artist’s work firmly in an art historical perspective. She combines careful scrutiny of the art’s formal traits with wide-ranging iconographic analysis, canny theoretical interpretation, and a revelatory examination of the work’s critical reception. The result is an extraordinary piece of scholarship.”-Judith Wilson, University of California, Irvine “It is not easy to write a scholarly work on a living artist whose talent for generating controversy at times obscures her formidable creative talent. However, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw has done it, with remarkable intelligence and style. She brilliantly contextualizes Kara Walker’s work in terms of art history and African American history in a book that will be of tremendous value to scholars across many disciplines.”-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University

• List of Illustrations viiAcknowledgments xiIntroduction 11. Tracing Race and Representation 112. The “Rememory” of Slavery 373. The Lactation of John Brown 674. Censorship and Reception 1035. Final Cut 125Conclusion 153Notes 157Index 187

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Her website provides more information about the author.

“Seeing the Unspeakable is an extremely important work. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is the first writer to place this controversial young artist’s work firmly in an art historical perspective. She combines careful scrutiny of the art’s formal traits with wide-ranging iconographic analysis, canny theoretical interpretation, and a revelatory examination of the work’s critical reception. The result is an extraordinary piece of scholarship.”-Judith Wilson, University of California, Irvine “It is not easy to write a scholarly work on a living artist whose talent for generating controversy at times obscures her formidable creative talent. However, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw has done it, with remarkable intelligence and style. She brilliantly contextualizes Kara Walker’s work in terms of art history and African American history in a book that will be of tremendous value to scholars across many disciplines.”-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University

• List of Illustrations viiAcknowledgments xiIntroduction 11. Tracing Race and Representation 112. The “Rememory” of Slavery 373. The Lactation of John Brown 674. Censorship and Reception 1035. Final Cut 125Conclusion 153Notes 157Index 187