| African-American Literature and Migration |
| DozentIn:Jatin Wagle |
| Veranstaltungstyp:Seminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen) |
| Ort:41/102 |
| Semester:SoSe 2024 |
Zeiten:Di. 14:00 - 16:00 (wöchentlich)
Erster Termin:Dienstag, 02.04.2024 14:00 - 16:00, Ort: 41/102 |
Beschreibung:The title of Isabel Wilkerson’s book on the so-called Great Migration, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) borrows half a line from a poem by Richard Wright: “I was leaving the South/ to fling myself into the unknown/ …I was taking a part of the South/ to transplant in alien soil,/ to see if it could grow differently,/ …respond to the warmth of other suns/ and, perhaps, to bloom”. African-American migration from Southern United States between the early and the mid-twentieth century have been viewed as acts of collective agency and resistance against the brutally unjust realities of the Jim Crow legal regime. In this seminar in American Studies, we will explore the many waves of migration and the ways in which they have shaped modern and contemporary African-American culture and literature.
This seminar will take up a challenging selection of historical, analytical, fictional and nonfictional texts that demand careful preparation and thoughtful discussion.
We will be discussing the following primary texts intensively in our course:
Jean Toomer, _Cane_ (1923)
Toni Morrison, _Jazz_ (1992)
Please procure print or eBook versions and start reading them. Recommended editions: Jean Toomer, _Cane_ (1923) [Norton Critical edition, 2011, ISBN: 9780393931686], Toni Morrison, _Jazz_ (1992) [Random House, 2001, ISBN: 9780099750918].
This course takes up literary/cultural texts that might be viewed as offensive and/or disturbing, especially because of their racially explicit vocabulary and imagery. This should not be seen as an attempt at normalizing racist epithets or attitudes, but on the contrary as an opportunity to appreciate and examine literary and cultural expression that tackles and critiques the murky realities of racism.
As part of your assigned work in this seminar, all the course participants would need to carefully prepare the reading(s) allotted for each of the sessions, develop points of discussion, and occasionally respond to the reading(s) via annotations on Google Docs. Our weekly, in-person meetings will be assisted by expert groups/session presenters.
Requirements for a grade: All of the above and a research-based seminar paper.
Please check the course webpages on Stud.IP regularly for updates, announcements, and changes. |
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