SCHC 457 H07 26234

Humanities, EngLit, AIU

Notes:

This seminar will trace a long, global history of anticolonial writing and activism, from the founding documents of the world's first Black republic to the wealth of essays, plays, poetry, tweets, and manifestos that have emerged from contemporary social justice movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and #FeesMustFall. Our goal will be to develop a historically informed sense of the broad range of creative responses to empire, state violence, and structural racism that have emerged from the Global South over the past two centuries. The work of brilliant Caribbean, African, and U.S. literary authors such as Aimé Césaire, Audre Lorde, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Jamaica Kincaid will be central to our exploration. But this will not be a typical English class; we'll consistently put that literature in conversation with history, political speeches, critical theory, and film. At all times we'll take an intersectional approach to the material-that is, we'll recognize that identity categories such as race, gender, sexuality, and class need to be studied together rather than in isolation from one another. This seminar should be of interest to students majoring in English, Comparative Literature, African American Studies, History, and Global Studies as well as anyone interested in gaining a broad historical and global perspective on the relationship between art and social justice.