Black Literary Theory
AFAM 315
Spring 2024
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 318 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
This course will bring together readings both literary and critical/theoretical, beginning with Frantz Fanon's "Black Skin, White Masks" (1952). Taking Fanon as its point of departure, then, this course will necessarily turn to a discussion of the recent discourse on Afro-pessimism and Black optimism, attempting to introduce students to important issues and questions of race, race relations, anti-Black racism, Black sociality, the universality of whiteness and white supremacy, the fungibility of the Black body, and the vulnerability and precarity of Black life; and together we will think more closely about how the complex and "unthinkable" histories and afterlives of chattel slavery, racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and the Middle Passage, for examples, continue to challenge the representational limits and potentialities of traditional literary genres and modes of emplotment. In addition to Fanon, authors will include Orlando Patterson, Toni Morrison, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Achille Mbembe, Frank Wilderson, Jared Sexton, Fred Moten, and others. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA AFAM |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AFAM-MN)(AFAM)(CSCT)(ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Frantz Fanon, BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS
Orlando Patterson, SLAVERY AND SOCIAL DEATH
Toni Morrison, BELOVED
Hortense Spillers, MAMA'S BABY, PAPA'S MAYBE
Saidiya Hartman, SCENES OF SUBJECTION
Achille Mbembe, NECROPOLITICS
Frank Wilderson, AFROPESSIMISM
Jared Sexton, THE SOCIAL LIFE OF SOCIAL DEATH
Fred Moten, BLACKNESS AND NOTHINGNESS
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Examinations and Assignments:
2 Critical Translations, 2 Critical Etymologies, participation in 1 Research Methods Workshop, 1 Prospectus (250 words) and Annotated Bibliography (5 outside sources), Final Presentation of the Prospectus and Annotated Bibliography, and 1 Justificatory Essay (2,500 words and 5 outside sources). |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Bertholf,Garry Times: .M.W... 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: FISK302; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 35 | | SR major: 8 | JR major: 8 | | |
| Seats Available: 30 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 7 | JR non-major: 7 | SO: 5 | 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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