Cross listed with BL_STU 4400-01

Love stories have a rich history of both fierce popularity and brutal critique. On the one hand, love stories penned by white male authors have often been hailed as serious tales of “universal” human experience (think Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby). On the other, “romance” novels have long been treated as the guilty pleasure of housewives the world over, often cast aside as silly, cheesy, and poorly written. Representations of Black love in both film and text, however, are much more difficult to come by and are often eclipsed by representations of Black suffering. This course explores how the love story genre shifts when it is confronted by Blackness. Through analysis of Black films and literary texts, we will ask how representions of Black love are inflected by history, by gender, and by race, exploring what love can tell us about the society we live in and about ourselves. What is love, let alone Black love? How does romantic love differ from platonic or familial love in its presentation (and representations)? How do structures of privilege and oppression sculpt the kinds of love that are possible for Black folks? What are the social and political stakes of Black love?

Authors to be studied include Gayl Jones, Kiese Laymon, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, and Zadie Smith. Some films may include Queen and Slim, Moonlight, Love and Basketball, and The Watermelon Woman.