African American Political Thought
\nPOLI 272: AFRICAN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
\nBlack Life, Humanity, Freedom<\/p>\n
Vassar College
\nFall 2015
\nTuesday and Thursday 4:35 pm-5:50 pm<\/p>\n
Annie Menzel
\n103 Rockefeller Hall<\/p>\n
Office Hours:
\nWednesday 1-3 p.m. and by appointment<\/p>\n
I am going to tell this story as though Negroes were ordinary human beings, realizing that this attitude will from the first seriously curtail my audience.<\/p>\n
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction (1934)<\/p>\n
The struggle of our new millennium will be one between the ongoing imperative of securing the well-being of our present ethno-class (i.e., Western bourgeois) conception of the human, Man, which overrepresents itself as if it were the human itself, and that of securing the well-being, and therefore the full cognitive and behavioural autonomy[,] of the human species itself\/ourselves.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Wynter, \u201cUnsettling the Coloniality of Being\/Power\/Truth\/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation\u2014An Argument\u201d<\/p>\n
DESCRIPTION
\nThe focus of this course is African American political thinkers\u2019 articulations of struggles for citizenship, humanity, and freedom\u2014terms historically defined in the West in opposition to Blackness\u2014from the mid-nineteenth century to the present moment, in what Saidiya Hartman calls \u201cthe afterlife of slavery.\u201d We will pay close attention to the variety of meanings that these thinkers give to these concepts, given the normative understandings of race, gender, and sexuality that define their respective contexts, as well as how these formulations can guide us in contemporary political and social life. Given that the prevailing category of \u201chumanity\u201d in particular, entails such radical and murderous exclusions, we are called upon to rethink what its content ought to be. What lessons do the forms of life and thought that have taken shape outside the bounds of Western \u201chumanity\u201d hold for envisioning freer, more just, more loving ways of being human? Relatedly, we will attend closely to the body as a site of both oppression and resistance. Moving more or less chronologically, the course pairs historical texts with contemporary scholarship on the themes of enslavement and kinship; violence and resistance; feminism; genre and medium; Black existentialism; and queer theory and politics.<\/p>\n
TEXTS<\/p>\n
The books below are available for purchase at the Juliet. The assigned page numbers will be from these editions. PLEASE NOTE that the City Lights edition of Douglass\u2019 Narrative also contains the Angela Davis readings\u2014so please do purchase this edition.<\/p>\n
W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk (Dover Publications; unabridged edition, 1994)
\nFrederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself: A New Critical Edition by Angela Y. Davis (City Lights, 2010)<\/p>\n
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Dover Publications; Reprint edition (2001)<\/p>\n
James Baldwin, James Baldwin: Collected Essays, Toni Morrison, ed. (Library of America, 1998)<\/p>\n
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Crossing Press, 2007)<\/p>\n
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower<\/p>\n
EXPECTATIONS<\/p>\n
Each class will consist of active discussion. Everyone is expected to complete each session\u2019s reading prior to the class meeting and bring the reading to class.<\/p>\n
Starting Week 3, students will take turns facilitating the discussion. Guidelines will be distributed in Week 2.<\/p>\n
At the end of each class, we will take a few minutes to reflect on the discussion. I will collect these reflections, read them, and use them to shape the class as we go along. Please bring paper to write on and something to write with.<\/p>\n
We may change some of the readings over the course of the semester depending on our own collective desires and\/or events happening in the world.<\/p>\n
EVALUATION<\/p>\n
\u2022 In-class reflections (see above): 10%
\n\u2022 Discussion facilitation: 15%
\n\u2022 Appreciation paper: (~4-5 pages) 15%
\n\u2022 \u201cKeywords in African American Political Thought\u201d entry (~4-5 pages): 20%
\n\u2022 Comparative appreciation paper (8-10 pages): 25%
\n\u2022 Final reflection 15%<\/p>\n
Participation \u201cIn-class participation\u201d means being here, listening carefully, reflecting on what others are saying, and, if you are moved to do so, contributing a comment, question, or thought that adds to the collective project of the discussion. As we have all experienced, some people are more eager than others to speak in a group setting, and these tendencies can harden into patterns of speech and silence that do not do justice to our full potential as a group to address the difficult questions that we will be considering together. I ask that everyone, including myself, be thoughtful about how our contributions are shaping the conversation. I welcome feedback throughout the semester on keeping a good balance in our discussions.<\/p>\n
Appreciation Paper It\u2019s easy to critique, so we are going to practice appreciating. This assignment, whose prompt will be distributed in Week 2, asks you to detail the analytical strengths of one text that we read.<\/p>\n
Keywords We will collectively compile a glossary of keywords from the texts that we read over the course of the semester. This will be part of the task of the discussion leaders. You will select one of these keywords and create an entry that offers a substantial explication of the term, and traces the word through the course texts (and potentially a few supplemental works). We will partly model our project on the digital component of Keywords for American Cultural Studies, edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Handler.<\/p>\n
Comparative appreciation paper You will compare the insights of two or more of the thinkers that we work with regarding a particular topic. This may be a concept, like \u201cfreedom,\u201d or it may be a current event or situation in the world. You may build on the first appreciation paper. More precise assignment parameters will be discussed later in the semester.<\/p>\n
VIOLENT CONTENT
\nThese texts have arisen out of an unspeakably violent history, built on crimes against human bodies, and they reflect that\u2014some more graphically than others. This content will impact different people different ways, and I cannot know what will be a trigger for each individual. We will discuss how to approach this in our first session and moving forward.<\/p>\n
DISABILITIES SUPPORT
\nAcademic accommodations are available for students registered with the Office for Accessibility and Educational Opportunity. Students in need of ADA\/504 accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course that have been approved by the Office for Accessibility and Educational Opportunity, as indicated in your AEO accommodation letter.<\/p>\n
ELECTRONIC DEVICES
\nLaptops and smartphones are fine for note-taking and reading, but please do not email, text, update social media, surf the net, make purchases on amazon.com, etc., as these activities draw energy away from the discussion and are distracting to me and to fellow students.<\/p>\n
SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
Week 1 Introductions
\nT 9\/1 Introduction and discussion
\nTh 9\/3 NO CLASS MEETING<\/p>\n
PART I: Theoretical horizons<\/p>\n
Week 2
\nT 9\/8
\nGround Rules discussion
\nMichael Hanchard, Contours of Black Political Thought: An Introduction and Perspective<\/p>\n
In preparation for Angela Davis visit:
\nTh 9\/10 Davis, Standards for a New Womanhood, from Women, Race, and Class
\nCathy Cohen, \u201cPunks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens\u201d<\/p>\n
Week 3
\nT 9\/15 Angela Davis, Lectures on Liberation I<\/p>\n
WEDS 9\/16: Angela Davis lecture in the chapel, 5:30 pm<\/p>\n
Th 9\/17 Angela Davis, Lectures on Liberation II<\/p>\n
PART II: Slavery and afterlives<\/p>\n
Week 4 Enslavement and mastery<\/p>\n
T 9\/22
\nSaidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother (selection) and \u201cVenus in Two Acts\u201d<\/p>\n
Th 9\/24
\nHortense Spillers, \u201cMama\u2019s Baby, Papa\u2019s Maybe: An American Grammar Book\u201d<\/p>\n
Week 5 Enslavement, freedom, and gender I
\nT 9\/29
\nDouglass, Narrative of the Life, part 1
\nSaidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection, Introduction (selection)
\nFred Moten, In the Break, Introduction (selection)<\/p>\n
**WEDS 9\/30 APPRECIATION PAPER I DUE 5 pm on Moodle<\/p>\n
Th 10\/1
\nDouglass, Narrative of the Life, part 2
\nAccompanying text TBA<\/p>\n
Week 6 Enslavement, freedom, and gender II
\nT 10\/6
\nHarriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, part I
\nSaidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection, Ch. 3 (selection)
\nTh 10\/8
\nHarriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, part II
\nValerie Smith, \u201cLoopholes of Retreat\u201d<\/p>\n
OCTOBER BREAK<\/p>\n
PART III: Key Thinkers<\/p>\n
Week 7 Ida B. Wells-Barnett
\nT 10\/20
\nA Red Record, part I
\nJoy James, Shadowboxing, pp. 45-59<\/p>\n
Th 10\/22
\nA Red Record, part II
\n\u201cNAACP,\u201d from Crusade for Justice<\/p>\n
Week 8 Du Bois: Souls of Black Folk
\nT 10\/27 Du Bois, Souls, selection<\/p>\n
Th 10\/29 Du Bois, Souls, selection
\nAlexander Weheliye, Grooves of Temporality OR another contemporary reading on Souls<\/p>\n
Week 9 Du Bois: Black Reconstruction
\nT 11\/3 Du Bois, Black Reconstruction, selection<\/p>\n
**Weds 11\/4 KEYWORD ESSAY DUE at 5 pm on Moodle<\/p>\n
Th 11\/5 Du Bois, Black Reconstruction, selection
\nCedric Robinson, Black Marxism (Selection)<\/p>\n
Week 10 James Baldwin
\nT 11\/10 Baldwin\u2019s existentialism
\nLewis Gordon, Bad Faith and Anti-Black Racism (short selection)
\nBaldwin:
\n\u201cMy Dungeon Shook\u201d
\n\u201cThe American Dream and the American Negro\u201d
\nPerhaps: 1963 debate with Malcolm X (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dTsWBaEz6KY))<\/p>\n
Th 11\/12
\n\u201cReport from Occupied Territory\u201d
\nOther Baldwin essays TBA<\/p>\n
Week 11 Generations of Black Queer Thought: Baldwin to Lorde (and beyond)
\nT 11\/17 Baldwin to Lorde
\nRevolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, Essence, 1984<\/p>\n
Th 11\/19 Lorde I
\nSister Outsider (selections)<\/p>\n
Week 12 Lorde and her Legacies
\nT 11\/24 Lorde II: Sister Outsider (selections)
\nAlexis Pauline Gumbs, \u201cSounds to Me Like A Promise: On Survival\u201d (2012)<\/p>\n
Th 11\/26: NO CLASS, THANKSGIVING RECESS<\/p>\n
Week 13 Afrofutures
\nT 12\/1 Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (pages TBA)
\nMary Hansen and Walidah Imarisha, Science Fiction and the Post-Ferguson World: \u201cThere Are as Many Ways to Exist as We Can Imagine,\u201d YES! Magazine, 12\/3\/14<\/p>\n
**Weds 12\/2 COMPARATIVE APPRECIATION PAPER DUE at 5 pm on Moodle<\/p>\n
Th 12\/3 Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (pages TBA)<\/p>\n
Week 14
\nT 12\/8 Butler, Parable of the Sower (pages TBA); Course wrap-up<\/p>\n
Final reflection due: TBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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