Reading Black Culture (FYS)
ENGL 112F
Fall 2022
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AFAM 112F |
Blackness is the lifeblood of the culture industry. U.S. popular culture--which traverses national boundaries due to the workings of imperialism and global capital--has a predominantly Black face, at the same time that Black people, in the United States and across the globe, are made to live in unrelenting proximity to death and destitution. This introductory course aims to tackle this seemingly contradictory state of things by considering the manifold ways Blackness circulates in the global cultural landscape. With the ultimate aim of increasing cultural literacy, we will engage with key questions such as: What makes a Black text? What, if any, political duty does the Black cultural worker have to the larger "Black community"? How does a critique of capital figure into Black culture? How might we conceptualize intellectual work as central to Black cultural traditions? This course traces these questions through the analytic of "reading"--as a mode of critical engagement that exceeds the textual. We will contend with Blackness in its varying permutations and figurations across the domains of literature, music, film, sport, visual art, and performance. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL-Creative W)(ENGL-Literature) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYS |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Winston Napier, AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERARY THEORY: A READER
Hortense Spillers, "THE IDEA OF BLACK CULTURE"
James Snead, "REPETITION AS A FIGURE OF BLACK CULTURE"
Clyde Taylor, THE MASK OF ART: BREAKING THE AESTHETIC CONTRACT--FILM AND LITERATURE
Darby English, HOW TO SEE A WORK OF ART IN TOTAL DARKNESS
Kobena Mercer, WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: NEW POSITIONS IN BLACK CULTURAL STUDIES
Lindon Barrett, BLACKNESS AND VALUE: SEEING DOUBLE
bell hooks, BLACK LOOKS: RACE AND REPRESENTATION
Stuart Hall, "WHAT IS THIS 'BLACK' IN BLACK POPULAR CULTURE?"
Nicole Fleetwood, TROUBLING VISION: PERFORMANCE, VISUALITY, AND BLACKNESS
Tsitsi Jaji, AFRICA IN STEREO: MODERNISM, MUSIC, AND PAN-AFRICAN SOLIDARITY
Marlon Riggs, ETHNIC NOTIONS
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Contributes to fulfillment of ENGL major requirements: elective |
| Instructor(s): Palmer,Tyrone S. Times: ..T.R.. 10:20AM-11:40AM; Location: DWNY100; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 15 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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