Blackness and Affect
CHUM 335
Spring 2024
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 389, AFAM 325 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
Critical theory and the humanities are in the throes of what has been termed "the affective turn," wherein scholars theorize affect--broadly construed as social feeling or bodily intensity--as central to understanding (post/human) relationality, the social, ethics, and the political. Haunting this field of inquiry is a series of questions: Can a turn to affect account for the figure of the Slave? Can an embrace of affectivity, as potential, bring Blackness into the realm of our understanding "without trying to fill in the void" (Hartman)? Rather than conceptualizing affect as the connective thread between bodies and worlds, or as a purely relational force, how might we think about affect and non-relationality; affect outside of and against the world; affect without the body? This seminar will engage these, and related, questions through extended explorations of the relationship between affect theory and Blackness. Readings will include: Frantz Fanon, Lauren Berlant, Brian Massumi, Sarah Ahmed, Rizvana Bradley, Xine Yao, Sianne Ngai, and Darieck Scott, among others. |
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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 Major Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL)(ENGL-Creative W) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Course readings may include:
Kyla Schuller, THE BIOPOLITICS OF FEELING
Lauren Berlant, ON THE INCONVENIENCE OF OTHER PEOPLE
Sianne Ngai, UGLY FEELINGS
Amber Musser, SENSATIONAL FLESH
Franz Fanon, BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS
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Examinations and Assignments:
1 major research paper, weekly response papers |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Contributes to fulfillment of ENGL major requirements: LH3, WL, TH, elective |
| Instructor(s): Palmer,Tyrone S. Times: .M..... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: CFH106; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 12 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | 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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