Why do literary studies scholars talk about racism?

As you’ll learn in this course, the answer has a lot to do with the nature of writing and representation. Literature has always been a way of understanding our world – and, as a consequence, of expressing the fantasies and phobias that constitute our most powerful social formations.

This course introduces the methods of literary and cultural studies through a focus on race and ethnicity. As we’ll learn, questions of difference, representation, and rhetoric are central to the discipline and its critical methods. To understand this intellectual formation, we will read anti-racist and feminist scholars, and we’ll also read a good number of canonical White authors. From G.W.F. Hegel to Audre Lorde, and from Charlotte Brontë to Maryse Condé, we’ll see what literature can teach us about race, ethnicity, and intellectual inquiry.

By the end of the semester, students will understand both the methods of literary and cultural studies and the philosophical underpinnings of antiracist discourse. They will develop competencies in reading literary theory and criticism, and they will be able to articulate the epistemological implications of racism and antiracism.

Major Requirement: Identity/Difference

Course Requirements:

In-class engagement, two short papers, one in-class midterm, final presentation