Black Texts, Lost and Found
CHUM 336
Spring 2021
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 357, AFAM 336 |
This course examines histories of loss and recovery of black texts in the US and the Atlantic world more broadly. We will bring a three-pronged approach to our subject matter. We will analyze first the constitutive silences of the archive: epistemic and material neglect, or what Michel Trouillot has termed the "silencing of the past"; second, the preservation efforts of black newspaper editors, librarians, and bibliophiles; and third, the "counter-archiving" work of Afro-diasporic historical and speculative fiction. As we traverse different periods and empires we will consider what the concepts of the "black archive" and "black ephemera" mean to different disciplines. We will study the repressions of black Arabic writing practices in the US South and our fragmentary recovery of them in the late 20th century, unfinished novels about Black Atlantic revolutions such as Martin Delany's "Blake," incomplete runs of historic black newspapers, debates about the illusions and desires of "recovery," and the criteria that determine what counts as ephemeral and when.
We will move across different media, from print--"I, Tituba," "M Archive," "Blake," "(Dis)forming the American Canon: African-Arabic Slave Narratives and the Vernacular"--to films--"The Watermelon Woman," "Looking for Langston," "The Last Angel of History"--and from digitized databases of photographs at the ongoing archiving project The Missing Chapter: Black Chronicles to digitized newspaper archives. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Ethiop Wilson, AFRIC-AMERIC PICTURE GALLERY; Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M ARCHIVE; Martin Delany, BLAKE, OR THE HUTS OF AMERICA; Films: John Akomfrah, THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY; Isaac Julien, LOOKING FOR LANGSTON; Cheryl Dunye, THE WATERMELON WOMAN;
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Examinations and Assignments:
Research Assignments, 2 short and 1 longer research paper |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Classes of '21 & '22: This course fulfills the Literatures of Difference, Literary History 2, and Theory requirements, and contributes to the Race & Ethnicity and Theory & Literary Forms concentrations of the English major.
Class of '23 and beyond: This course fulfills the Literary History 2, Literary History 3, Theory, and American Literature requirements of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Bilbija,Marina Times: ..T.... 01:00PM-03:50PM; Location: CFH106; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 10 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 2 | GRAD: 1 | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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