Meanings
- uncountableThe awareness of a subordinated or colonized individual of having two selves, their inward self and the self, created by how the oppressor group sees them.
Double-consciousness is the African American’s awareness of possessing two souls: an outward self based largely on how whites perceive him and an inward self that he comes to realize as his truer self.
2008, Danny Sexton, “Lifting the Veil: Revision and Double-Consciousness in Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth”, in Callaloo, page 7781 more example
Postcolonial theorists often describe the colonial subject as having a double consciousness or double vision, in other words, a consciousness or way of perceiving the world that is divided between two antagonistic worlds, a consciousness or way of perceiving the world that is divided between two antagonistic cultures: that of the colonizer and that of the indigenous community.
1999, Lois Tyson, chapter 11, in Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, page 368
Cite this entry
double consciousness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/double%20consciousness
“double consciousness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/double%20consciousness. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “double consciousness,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/double%20consciousness.
Source: double consciousness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.