Black Aesthetics

Catalog description

Three hours lecture per week This course explores Black expression in literature and popular culture (dance, music, film, and visual art) from different regions of the African Diaspora. This aesthetics course encompasses the study and appreciation of textual and visual elements, such as form, color, composition, balance, symmetry, rhythm, texture, and proportion. Black aesthetics emerged as a cultural and artistic movement during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. It aimed to reclaim and celebrate Black identity, culture, and history, challenging and subverting dominant narratives and stereotypes. Black aesthetics often focuses on themes of racial pride, social justice, African heritage, and the Black experience. This course will cover the historical development of African American contributions to aesthetics in media and major concepts in African American culture. Students will read primary literary texts and view and discuss silent films, contemporary documentaries, and noir.