Sexual Choice and the Erotic Afterlives of Slavery in Jeremy O. Harris’s <i>Slave Play</i>

Abstract Staging an experimental sex therapy in which Black characters act as enslaved, Slave Play depicts erotic encounters charged with stereotypes of Black sexuality. While many critics dismiss this representation as distasteful, I argue that it is by staging Black sexuality in such challenging scenarios that Harris resists the dehumanising power of stereotypes. Instead of concealing stereotypes or seeking to supplant them with positive representation, Slave Play restores the unpredictability that they deny. In confronting this representation, our preconceptions short-circuit, and we are forced to apprehend Black sexuality on its own terms. This essay charts the rethinking of pleasure and agency that this confrontation compels.