English 249 - LITERATURES OF BLACK ATLANTIC

Visiting the pulpits, meeting houses, and gallows of British North America to the colonial West Indies and docks of Liverpool to the modern day Caribbean, U.S., Canada, U.K., and France, this course analyzes the literatures of the Black Atlantic and the development of Black literary and intellectual history from the 18th to the 21st century. Some key theoretical frameworks, which will help inform our study of literature emerging from the Black Atlantic, include diaspora, transnationalism, internationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Readings range from early African diasporic sermons, dying words, poetry, captivity and slave narratives to newspapers, essays, novels, drama and film.