Diasporic cultures locate deep structure in music, style, and body rather than writing.

Evidence

I say only three inadequate things about these traditions, since they are germane to the point I want to develop. First, I ask you to note how, within the black repertoire, style—which mainstream cultural critics often believe to be the mere husk, the wrapping, the sugar-coating on the pill—has become itself the subject of what is going on. Second, mark how, displaced from a logocentric world—where the direct mastery of cultural modes meant the mastery of writing and, hence, both of the criticism of writing (logocentric criticism) and the deconstruction of writing—the people of the black diaspora have, in opposition to all of that, found the deep form, the deep structure of their cultural life in music. Third, think of how these cultures have used the body—as if it was, and it often was, the only cultural capital we had. We have worked on ourselves as the canvases of representation. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 284

Categorization

• XREF: The logocentric/music distinction mirrors how the colonial ear/eye dichotomy operates in Orientalism — connects to Said and to how music marks difference in the Other.
• DEFINE: Defines the diasporic counter-position to logocentrism: style as subject, music as deep structure, body as cultural capital.