Themes in Literature: Black Mothers in the 21st Century

Survival, resilience, resistance, and legacy have been central in the narratives of Black mothers for centuries and as this course examines the role of mothers in shaping Black identity, culture, and history through fiction, film, memoir, poetry, and art, we will move beyond narratives of crisis and (racialized) trauma, ensuring that we do not reinforce a single story about Blackness.

From tracing familial and socio-cultural inheritances of Black motherhood in Yaa Gyasi’s acclaimed novel Homegoing, studying how the memoir Becoming by Michelle Obama reshapes stereotypical narratives of Black women and investigating why Beyoncé’s visual albums Lemonade and Black Is King and her curated performances during her pregnancy and recent concerts were so viral in contemporary culture, we will study how narratives of Black matrilineage celebrate creativity, individuality, portray negotiations of identity, and reveal the power of maternal influence in shaping freedom across generations.

You will learn to pose critical questions, write about literary genres and works, and use textual evidence from citations and analysis to support your arguments. By the end of the semester, we would have made connections between contemporary texts and their cultural moments through class discussions, guided responses to assigned texts, and creative projects.