The Ethics of Black Verbal Aesthetics.

Catalog description

This course introduces the advanced study of black verbal aesthetics in the novels of Ralph Ellison (the dozens), Toni Morrison (folktales), Colson Whitehead (call and response), the poetry of Harryette Mullen (diasporic blues/jazz improvisation), and others. Exploring black verbal aesthetics and sonic technologies, we will investigate how the these authors above (as well as James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka) treat verbal expressive arts as sites of hidden knowledge, subversion, and everyday politics that centralizes black life and culture.