Race and Satire

Catalog description

This course looks at satire as a genre that interrogates race and critiques racism using humor, parody, irony, caricature, and other literary techniques. We will look at theories of African American satire and humor, canonical Western works like Othello, and contemporary novels by Paul Beatty, Percival Everett, Charles Yu, and Mithu Sanyal. We will also study films such as American Fiction and Get Out; television including Atlanta, Master of None, and Insecure; and other multimedia by Black, South Asian, and East Asian creators. We will study how these artists wield satire as a potent means of critiquing structural racism and marginalization, close-read these works, and analyze satire’s shortcomings.