ENGL 2210

In this course, we study literary texts and other cultural production of the African diaspora. Through reading a variety of African diasporic texts, we explore the ways that the African diaspora has responded creatively to slavery, colonialism, migration, and travel, producing legacies and languages of resilience, resistance, and rupture. We will consider: different streams of the African diaspora, including continental Africa, the Caribbean, Britain, and North America; various genres, including prose fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, drama, music, and film; and the ways that African diasporic identity intersects with other modes of identification, such as nationality, gender, sexuality, class, age, and religion. This course will introduce you to some of the key theoretical and thematic concerns of African diasporic literature. The majority of the texts will have been written in English originally, although there will be some texts read in translation.