Intensive argumentative writing drawn from controversy stimulated through selected readings and class discussion. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

This course will explore forms of literary and scholarly writing that attempt to grapple with the profound uprooting and disruption of community produced in the transatlantic slave trade and its aftermath. We take as our starting point, however, the idea that the intercontinental trade in human lives is one of the key founding moments of the condition of “modernity” for all involved, and therefore sets the stage for both the forms of exploitation and annihilation as well as the possibilities for collective formation and political resistance that appear in response. We will consider attempts to narrate this disruption alongside forms like myth and epic that announce the founding of a community. Throughout, we will examine these themes in light of the complex interplay between the aspirations represented by various black nationalisms, Pan-Africanist internationalisms, and other internationalist projects such as Marxism. If the transformation of human bodies into property along the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas created a new condition of humanity, it does not automatically found a new community—it may, however, create unprecedented conditions for possible community requiring new forms of narrative, collectivity, and solidarity. As this is an R1B and you will be learning to write research papers, we will pay special attention to how writers confront gaps and silences in their archives, how they navigate conflicting demands placed on them through their belonging to multiple traditions and social positions, and how they attempt to forge new solidarities where existing structures and categories seem to render these impossible. We encourage you to take these themes and questions as prompts in your own research and writing process, and to develop creative research projects in response.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R1A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R1A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills