Introduction

The introduction raises the problems of reading eighteenth-century Black authors, especially the historical frames that have conditioned their reception, by focusing on the figure of the genius. The chapter suggests a rereading of these authors by looking at the obscured political dimension of their works. It also proposes a rereading of canonical thinkers of Enlightenment on race, paying attention to how an anxiety about race shows up in these thinkers' works, particularly in translations and practices of citation. The chapter argues for the timeliness of these investigations today, showing how contemporary politics of race has deep roots. The chapter also examines the role of gender in the investigations it proposes.