Cross listed with BL_STU 4400-01/7400-01

This diversity intensive course explores African Diaspora literature spanning centuries of Black people's movements and their attachment to diverse places, solidarities, and identities. Throughout this exploration, we delve into the multifaceted African Diaspora experience, where past and present intricately intertwine, shaping a distinctive African diaspora self. The course centers on a rich selection of literary and cultural works that illuminate the complexities of Black migration, examining the forces compelling individuals to leave their homelands and embrace and/or contest their “Black” identities. Our journey includes an exploration of how African Diaspora literary and cultural productions engage in the (re)presentation, critique, and reimagining of the Black diasporic experience. We examine the representations of historical processes and their intersections with migration dynamics, including border crossings, displacement, alienation, nostalgia, race, Otherness, language, and much more. Through rigorous analysis and discussions, students will gain profound insights into the African Diaspora literary and cultural narrative, fostering a deeper appreciation of its multifaceted dimensions.