English 309 - Seminar: Black Prison Intellectuals

Interrogating theories of intellectualism, among them Antonio Gramsci’s notion of traditional and organic intellectuals, and distinctions between categories of criminal and enemy, this course traces the role of black prison writings in the development of American political and legal theory. From 18th-century black captivity narratives and gallows literature through to the work of 20th- and 21st-century thinkers like Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver and Angela Davis, this course asks how the incarcerated black intellectual has informed and challenged ideas about nationalism, community and self-formation from the early republic to the present

Instructor Permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores