Interdisciplinary Arts 0223 - "It's Alive" : The Monstrosity of Blackness in African American Literature

Too often African Americans exist, as Ralph Ellison's narrator in Invisible Man remarks, as "phantom[s] in other people's minds," imagined as monsters, which also extends into American Literature. For centuries, stories and fantasies have been heaped upon Black bodies, and it shows no signs of slowing. But how does African American Literature see its protagonist, see the self, and has that self-image been colored by how it has been held in the imagination of others? In this course, students will continually engage notions of the monstrous in African American Literature, and they should expect to draft and revise essays and reading responses that analyze and interrogate the work of various African American writers and artists, considering the relationship between horror, the gothic, and our own complicated history, personal and cultural. Students may read and consider the work of Toni Morrison, Cornelius Eady, Victor LaValle, Elizabeth Young, and Niela Orr, among others.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students can generally expect to spend 6 to 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.