Are divisive political forces the source of the historical persistence of racism and its alarming recurrence in contemporary society? Or are there also subtler, more intractable reasons for racism's irrational power and historical persistence? This collection of essays takes the study of racism into a radically new direction——that of unconscious fantasies and identities——offering perspectives from a variety of leading figures in many fields.

CHRISTOPHER LANE is associate professor of English at Emory University. He is the author of The Ruling Passion: British Colonial Allegory and the Paradox of Homosexual Desire.

Tags: the psychoanalysis race