Contemporary African American Literature

Catalog description

African American authors and artists have become central to US mainstream cultural industries. The popularity of contemporary Black art forms and practices, however, is tempered by ongoing racial violence and exclusion. The course studies a variety of African American texts (literature, music, and film) from the 2000s to explore how Black artists reimagine the meaning of race and representation. In addition to a consideration of roles that technology and new media play in contemporary Black expression, we will also study experimentations in genres like, but not limited to, memoir, rap, and poetry. Develop an understanding of the political conditions that shape the 2000s and emerging critical approaches to analyzing Black cultural texts.