Topics in Global Literatures & Cultures
Topic: Black Historical Imagination
Class Information
Instructor: Lee, Xavier
Time: MWF 11:00-11:50am
Location: Olson 147
GE Areas: World Cultures Writing Experience
Description
What is "black history?" Whose story is to be told as "black history?" How are black histories written and told, and for whom? Which black stories are worth telling, and how ought they to be told? In this course, we study historical writing by black writers from Africa and the Americas. Covering topics like the Haitian Revolution, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Egyptology, and cultural anthropology, the course encourages students to reevaluate their assumptions about how histories are written and towards which ends.
Grading
Take Home Essays (3x): 45%
Final Paper/Assignment: 45%
Participation: 10%
Texts
Baracoon, Zora Neale Hurston
The Black Jacobins, CLR James
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Zong!, M NourbeSe Philips