Black Archives
In this course we will explore the archives of black thinkers such as Ralph Ellison, Robert Lynch, Claude McKay, Toni Morrison, Kara Walker, and Richard Wright. We will read rejected and lost manuscripts, unpublished drafts and notes, photographs, and complete diaries and novels that have never been read by the public but instead relegated to the archive. By recovering these lost texts, we will engage in activism by unsilencing these silenced black texts. To accomplish this task, students will manage a hardcopy archive and curate a digital archive. Topics will include diaspora and representation, personal and collective memory, gender and disability studies, and theories of the archive. 3 hrs. lect./disc.