ENGL 40923 - The Poetics of Black Popular Culture

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

This interdisciplinary course focuses on "cultural studies" as a critique of larger systems of domination and will introduce you to major voices of African American critical theory. Paul Gilroy suggests that, "popular culture always has its base in the experiences, the pleasures, the memories, the traditions of the people." Black Cultural Studies is interested in the wider sphere of critical practice, national politics and how popular culture can both resist and perpetuate the idea of America. While visual and literary studies have been seen as historically separate disciplines, we will use theories from each to study those forms of self-representation that defy disciplinary boundaries. With an eye on the way black popular culture is mythologized through commodification and rife with contradictions, we will examine the conflicted ways in which "racial" identities and differences have been constructed throughout U.S. culture. We will consider how new debates about the history of race have changed American literary, historical and cultural studies. We will put theoretical tracks in conversation with literature, music, visual art, the body, film and food and use these cultural texts as a method of engaging sustained social and political critique.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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