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Special Topics in Theory (383-0-22)

Topic

Black Vernacular as Theory

Instructors

Marquis Bey West

Meeting Info

University Hall 102: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

This course will take as fundamental that black vernacular—the dialects and slang and folk language and indeed robust language found in black communities—is a form of theory and theorizing. This theory, though different from the capital-T Theory of notable philosophers, will be shown to also possess intellectual sophistication, simply in, as Barbara Christian has said, "the form of the hieroglyph." If we assume, rightly, that black people have always theorized, only in different and alternative ways, how might we examine the nuances of that theory? What does it look like? Where, and in what forms, can it be found?

"Black Vernacular as Theory" will traverse myriad discursive genres—from essays to poems to music to social media to personal lives. It will put, say, the conversations between black women in the kitchen on par with the intellectual status of literary theorists, dismantling implicit hierarchies between "high" and "low" theory. Students will read the work of Barbara Christian, Geneva Smitherman, Toni Morrison, June Jordan, and others; listen to the albums of Canibus and Big L; and reflect on community conversations from family reunions and barbershops. Ultimately, we will begin to rethink what "counts" as theory, and how we might come to understand various marginalized communities within black cultural production as doing substantive work in terms of knowledge production.

Evaluation Method

Paper/essay.

Class Materials (Required)

Martin Heidegger Saved My Life, Grant Farred. ISBN: 9780816699360
The Sobbing School, Joshua Bennett. ISBN: 9780143111863
All other texts are articles and available online

Texts will be available at: On Canvas

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area