Post-Integration Blues

This course considers post-1960’s literary texts, films, etc. that are concerned with the fate of African American identity in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Era. We will begin the quarter with some secondary readings by Trey Ellis and Mark Anthony Neal, all of who try to account for significant shifts in the culture and life of African Americans over the last thirty years. Using concepts such as post-soul and the new black aesthetic (NBA), we will discuss questions of social mobility, education, postmodern passing, as well as the variable contours of class, sexuality, and gender as they appear in contemporary African American literature, film, comic strips, television shows, and music. We will also pay close attention to the formal and structural aspects of the cultural artifacts we will be studying.

Required Texts:

Paul Beatty, White Boy Shuffle

Octavia Butler, Dawn

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood

Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Trey Ellis, Platitudes

Percival Everett, Erasure

Aaron McGruder, The Boondocks

Fran Ross, Oreo

Danzy Senna, Caucasia

(Teju Cole, Open City, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, Andrea Lee, Sarah Phillips)

Schedule

Week 1: Course Introduction

Ellis, “The New Black Aesthetic” (In Platitudes) and Neal, Post-Soul Babies

Films: I’m Through With White Girls and Medicine For Melancholy

Week 2: Ellis, Platitudes

Week 3: Ross, Oreo

Week 4: Everett, Erasure

Week 5: Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Week 6: Senna, Caucasia

Week 7: Beatty, White Boy Shuffle

Week 8: Coates, The Beautiful Struggle

Week 9: Butler, Dawn

Week 10: Music Session

McGruder, The Boondocks and selected episodes from Chappelle’s Show