Topics in African-American Studies (380-0-21)

Topic

Metropolis and AFAM Culture

Instructors

Ivy G Wilson Jr

Meeting Info

Harris Hall L06: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

Throughout the twentieth century, the terms "urban" and "black America" became so intimately connected that they are often used as synonyms. By tracing different representations of urban life, this course examines the signification of the metropolis in African American cultural production. Although our focus will primarily center on cultural texts, we will address a number of the "push and pull" factors that prompted the Great Migration and the social forces that have subsequently kept many African Americans in the city. In focusing on a set of cultural texts, we will consider the ways in which African Americans have imagined both the allure and dangers of life in the city. Literature may include work by Nella Larsen, Ralph Ellison, and LeRoi Jones; artists may include the photographers Wayne Miller and Camilo José Vergara as well as the painter Jacob Lawrence; film media may include Coolie High and Good Times; music may include hip hop artists from Public Enemy to Common. Critics may include W.E.B. DuBois, St. Clare Drake, Raymond Williams, Mike Davis, and Mary Pattillo.

Class Materials (Required)

James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk
Teju Cole, Open City
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Nella Larsen, Passing
Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity