Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Intermediate seminar on the intersections between World Literature and other modes of cultural expression, or other academic disciplines. May focus on different methodological approaches to World Literature, for instance gender, cultural, or performance studies. Alternatively, may explore literature in relation to music, theatre, film, the visual arts, or digital humanities. This course may be repeated for credit when different topics are offered. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course approaches world literature through the constructions of female agency in black women’s fiction. Firstly, we will discuss the racial and sexist discrimination of black women in male-dominated societies and their strategic response to their oppression through multilayered, and at times, conflictual individual and collective praxis that stage their voices, needs, expectations, concerns, and subjectivities. As such, our reading of female agency will seek to extend beyond obvious acts of resistance to privilege concrete societal transformation in which women can unlock their full potential. Secondly, we will highlight the sociocultural singularities of black female agencies and their proximity or delineation with other forms of female agencies. Thirdly, a premium will be placed on the subversive powers of narratives devised by black women to challenge their obliteration or ghettoization in dominant historical narratives and to underline their prominent roles in the struggle for the emancipation of their societies or nations. The overarching aim is to underscore the contribution of black women to the growing scholarship on gender issues.    

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: