Raffaele Laudani, Lorenzo Ravano
This essay discusses the Black radical tradition as a peculiar and particularly consistent critical theory of modern political concepts. Two particular critical strategies will be discussed: the "doubling" and the "spatial subversion" of modern political concepts. Examples will be taken from the abolitionist period: David Walker's Appeal (1830) as an example of the first critical strategy; Martin Delany's "Political destiny of the colored people" (1854) for exploring the potential and limits of the second strategy.