123044 PS Literary Studies / Proseminar Literature (2021S)

In this course we will read examples of American fiction that focus on the interconnectedness of racism, sexism, xenophobia and capitalist exploitation. We will start by reading The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) by W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most important Black intellectuals of the 20th century. Du Bois’ novel as well as the selected fictional writing by Dorothy West, Alice Childress, and Octavia Butler addresses racialized capitalist exploitation of Black and female labor. In connecting these works to each other, to other forms of poetry (for example Audre Lorde’s and Langston Hughes’) and to prose such as theoretical and political works (by Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander and others), we follow the long tradition of Black
radical thought that Cedric Robinson provocatively coined with the term Black Marxism (1983, 2000, 2021). Moreover, we look at the continuation and actualization of these writers’ approaches within the Black Lives Matter movement and its artists’ works, for example in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017). This way we will get a deeper understanding of contemporary political struggles, for example by focusing on the connections between the prison industrial complex, the history of slavery and capitalist strivings to maximize profit.

After completing this course students will have gained an understanding of a variety of literary genres (e.g.: historic novel, science fiction novel, poetry, drama) and the basics of academic writing and research methodology. Critically engaging with the above mentioned and other texts, the students will learn basic skills of literary analysis. Moreover, they will be familiarized with the tools of intersectionality and Black feminist and critical race studies among others, and will be able to apply them in their research projects.

The students will work on a small individual research project that includes writing a research proposal with an annotated bibliography that will later progress into a final term paper on a topic of their choice related to the material covered in this course.