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Jul 01, 2025
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Fall 2025 Graduate Catalog
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AFH 524 - Contemporary African Diasporic Literature and Film
Contemporary African American Diasporic Literature and Film offers a comparative analysis of twentieth and twenty-first century African Diasporic writers and filmmakers and their explorations of race, class, and gender. To establish the shifting nature of African Diasporic intellectual thought, we shall consider how each successive generation of writers and filmmakers builds upon discussions of racial identity, black sexuality, and social mobility. To demonstrate how discussions of race have evolved over time texts will be read in conjunction with each other. So for example, Fanon’s seminal test Black Skin White Masks, a text that seeks to explain the racialization of society, the double consciousness of black people, and the superiority complex of white people will be read against Paul Gilroy’s Against Race, a text arguing for the deconstruction and recognition of race as a cultural construct. Other topics for discussion focus on how “newer” writers delve into questions of sexuality from a fresh perspective. Comparing Morrison’s Sula with Cheryl West’s play Before it Hits Home, for example, demonstrates that writers are now exploring questions of sexuality in more provocative ways. West’s uncovering of the “downlow” life-style lived by Black men, and the health concerns related and the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
3 credits
Grading Letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc.)
Required Permission from advisor required.
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