Second Skin: Josephine Baker & the Modern Surface

Through the figure of Josephine Baker, Second Skin tells the story of an unexpected yet enduring intimacy between the invention of a modernist style and the theatricalization of black skin at the turn of the twentieth century. Stepping outside of the platitudes surrounding this iconic figure, Anne Anlin Cheng argues that Baker's famous nakedness must be understood within larger philosophic and aesthetic debates about, and desire for, ""pure surface"" that crystallized at the convergence of modern art, architecture, machinery, and philosophy. Through Cheng's analysis, Baker emerges as a central