The Caribbean Radical Tradition, 1791-2020: Introduction to Black Intellectual History (AMER0088)

The history of ideas underpinningand inspiring black activism has often been distilled down to individual, exceptional, black, male intellectuals (eg Fanon, Garvey, James). Challenging the assumption of the exceptionalism and masculinity of the Caribbean intellectual by situating renowned thinkers within black intellectual history, this module introduces studentsto some of the writings of Caribbean thinkers of the past 250 years. Highlightingblack anti-enslavement writings, anti-imperialists, nation-builders, and black feminists the course introducesstudents to a range of Caribbean thinkers thematically and chronologically, enabling engagementwith and understanding ofthe genealogy, historical context, and influence of radical Caribbean thought.

 

Module description

Can we discern a particular ‘structure of feeling’ and sense to contemporary fiction? Starting from discussions on fiction...

How Does It Feel? Contemporary Fiction Between the Body and the World (CMII0174)

Module description

Can we discern a particular ‘structure of feeling’ and sense to contemporary fiction? Starting from discussions on fiction beyond postmodernism, this module will examine literary developments in 21st century literature from European, Latin- and North American authors, and situate them within a broader context that is characterized by social and ecological precarity and a lack of future. The module will develop an understanding of contemporary fiction as being preoccupied with questions of feeling and bodily experience in order to make sense of the world, and will look within this larger ideological frame at specific preoccupations in contemporary fiction: a desire for the real, feelings of depression and detachment, a disturbed sense of time and historicity, and movements between narcissism and community and between a home (intimacy) and the world (political commitment).

Primary reading may include novels by Catherine Lacey, Ben Lerner, Édouard Louis, Ling Ma, Samanta Schweblin, Zadie Smith, Niña Weijers and Alejandro Zambra