“<i>Mu, 49 Marks of Abolition</i> is a breathtaking work of impressive range. In a style that is remarkably poetic, Sora Y. Han moves from mourning her father’s death according to the Korean Buddhist conception of <i>mu</i> to Lacanian psychoanalysis, from contemporary experimental black and Asian American poetry to black critical theory, from US law-constitutional, carceral, and contract-to differential geometry and Korean history. I learned a great many things from this book.” - R. A. Judy, author of (Sentient Flesh: Thinking in Disorder, Poiesis in Black) “49 breaths to accompany a father on his final journey to the Ancestors; 49 stops along the penitentiary pilgrimage that is the <i>huis clos</i> of language; 49 periodic beats to move us through the thicket of legal theory into a destabilized poetics of off; 49 stepping stones into the mourning ground where law and poetry confront each other in the violence of grammar-49 times over <i>Mu</i> gifts us the means to mourn the split ‘Tongue of Adam’ that conscripts, constricts, and condemns.” - M. NourbeSe Philip, author of (Zong!)
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xxi
savoir black 1
terra incognita 29
nonperformance 63
non liquet blackness 103
the sur-round 131
res nulla loquitur 167
mu 187
Notes 207
Bibliography 227
Index 241