Faculty First Year Seminars 197THEAT3 - AFRICA IN THE MEDIA

Antithesis of civilization and the birthplace of humanity. Deep, dark, place of bestial wildness and romantic canvas for Western fantasy. Land of despots, famine and disease and site of hope. Africa, with its dynamic clashes of culture, language, religion, politics, and landscape, has historically been depicted and performed as a tapestry of conflicting visions. Using performance studies as a framework, this course will explore representations of Africa across various media from several vantage points: visions of the colonizers, Hollywood?s digestion of Africa, Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and Washington?s manipulation of the continent, and literary, dramatic, cinematic and artistic visions and voices by and about Africans themselves. Each class will include select readings, lively discussion, and viewing of select multimedia sources. Dr. Megan Lewis is a South African-American theater, performance, and film scholar whose research concerns performance across Africa generally, and staging race and gender in South Africa in particular.

Freshmen Only