The Exhausted: Fred Moten's Poetics

Abstract: This essay focuses upon the American poet Fred Moten alongside the thought of Ádouard Glissant, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, and Frederick Douglass. Across this essay, I argue for the significance of wandering figures in these imaginative worlds. Focusing on diverse examples of erring figures—an exhausted walker on a beach in Martinique, a schoolgirl who took part in the first wave of desegregation efforts in Arkansas, and an improvisational jazz vocalist inspired by the struggles of Africans across the diaspora—I analyze the importance of performances that remain quiet, blurry, and distant. Ultimately, I show how such wandering literary performances suggest new conceptions of critique, identity, and collectivity.