Reading Race in US literature and film 4219-SD107-OG

This course examines race as a social and cultural construct and a set of evolving literary and cinematic conventions and themes. A major theme of the course is the intersection of race, gender (especially masculinity) and sexuality. We will talk about the cultural construction of race in the US, white dismissal of, and fascination with black culture, as well as the complex logic of cultural appropriation.

Readings include texts by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Henry Louis Gates, bell hooks, Lauren Berlant and others. The films discussed are The Birth of the Nation (1915); The Jazz Singer (1927); Pinky (1949), Imitation of Life (1934 and 1959); Guess Who is Coming to Dinner? (1967); Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971); The Color Purple (1985); Do the Right Thing (1989), Boyz N the Hood (1991) and Django Unchained (2012).

Type of course

general courses

Learning outcomes

Upon completing this course a student:

KNOWLEDGE:
- knows a broad spectrum of literary texts and movies dealing with race relations themes linked to race relations in the USA;
- understands the historical and cultural context of the films and texts examined;
- understands key koncepts of critical race theory: race as cultural construct, one drop rule, passing, etc.

SKILLS
- can examine literary texts and movies in the light of theories of race;
- can recognize racism constructions, locate them in history and discuss critically;
- is able to formulate and present to a group an argument in the area of literary and film studies;

COMPETENCES:
- is able to cooperate in a group;
- is open to conflicting readings of specific texts and differing visions of culture and society;
- is able to formulate and defend his/her opinion coherently and with respect of other views

Assessment criteria

Participation and 2 group presentations - 50%
final test - 50%

Practical placement

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Bibliography

Ethnic Notions (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1986)
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, “Racial Formations”
Toni Morrison, “Playing in the Dark”
Ralph Ellison, “What America Would be like without Blacks”
Henry Louis Gates Jr. “Reading Race and the Difference it Makes”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
James Baldwin, “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Jane Tompkins. “Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary History." (from: Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860. New York: Oxford UP, 1985, pp. 122-146)
Patricia A. Turner, “The Troping of Uncle Tom” (from: Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture, U. of Virginia Press, 1994, pp. 69-88)
Donald Bogle, “Black Beginnings: From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of A Nation” (from: Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, NY: Continuum, 1999, pp. 3-18).
Michael Rogin, “’The Sword Became Flashing Vision’: D.W. Griffiths The Birth of the Nation.” (from: The Birth of the Nation, ed. Robert Lang, Rutgers films in Print 1994)
Michael Rogin, “Uncle Sammy and My Mammy” - excerpts on The Jazz Singer and blackface from: Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants and the Hollywood Melting Pot, U. of California Press, 1996. pp: 3-6; 12-15; 45-49.
Charles Musser, “Why Did Negroes Love Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer?: Melodrama, Blackface and Cosmopolitan. Theatrical Culture,” Film History, Vol 23, pp. 196-222.
Langston Hughes: “The Weary Blues”; “Negro Writer and the Racial Mountain”; “Slave on the Block” and “Who’s Passing for Who?”
Countee Cullen, “Heritage”
Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)
Judith Butler, ‘Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen’s Psychoanalytical Challenge’ from: Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. London: Routledge, 1993.
Donald Bogle, “The 1930s: The Servants” (from Toms, Coons…, Chapter 3
Elspeth Kydd, "The Ineffaceable Curse of Cain": Racial Marking and Embodiment in Pinky”, Camera Obscura 43 (Volume 15, Number 1), 2000 pp. 94-121
Miriam J. Petty “Passing For Horror: Race, Fear, and Elia Kazan’s “Pinky”
Genders, Issue 40 (2004)
Lauren Berlant, “National Brands, National Body. Imitation of Life” (from: The Female Complaint, Durham: Duke UP 2008).
James Baldwin: “Going to meet the Man”
Norman Mailer: The White Negro
James Balwin: “The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy”
Douglas Taylor, “Three Lean Cats in a Hall of Mirrors: James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, and Eldridge Cleaver on Race and Masculinity”, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Volume 52, Number 1, Spring 2010
Matthew Clair, A Very Complex Thing: The Battleground between James Baldwin and Norman Mailer. http://www.diverseartsproject.com/reportage/2012/7/10/a-very-complex-thing-the-battleground-between-james-baldwin.html
- Mark Greif, What Was the Hipster? http://nymag.com/news/features/69129/
James Baldwin, “The Devil Finds Work” (2 excerpts: 510-521; 530-536)

Anne Gray Perrin, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: The Web of Racial, Class, and Gender Constructions in late 1960s America",
The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 45, Issue 4, pages 846–861, August 2012
Ed Guerrero, “The Rise and Fall of Blaxploitation (chapter 3 in Framing Blackness. The African American Image in Film)
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (excerpts)
bell hooks, „Reading and Resistance: The Color Purple” (from: Alice Walker. Critical Perspectives Past and Present, ed. H.L. Gates & A. Appiah, New York:Amistad, 1993)
Jacqueline Bobo, “Watching The Color Purple: Two Interviews” (from: The Film Cultures Reader, ed. Graeme Turner, London: Routledge, 2002)
Manthia Diawara, “Black American Cinema, The New Realism”
Michael Eric Dyson, “Between Apocalypse and Redemption: John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood”, Cultural Critique, No. 21 (Spring, 1992):121-141.
Norman K. Denzin, relevant sections from: Reading Race: Hollywood and the Cinema of Racial Violence (Sage Publications, 2002)
Roger Ebert, FASTER, QUENTIN! THRILL! THRILL!
http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/faster-quentin-thrill-thrill
Samuel Sattin, “Django Unchained’s” secret political triumph
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/django_unchaineds_secret_triumph/
Roxanne Gay, “Surviving Django”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/roxanegay/surviving-django-8opx
David Denby, “Django Unchained”: Put-On, Revenge, and the Aesthetics of Trash, New Yorker, JANUARY 22, 2013 http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/django-unchained-put-on-revenge-and-the-aesthetics-of-trash
Bell hooks, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance from her book Black Looks)
http://genius.com/Bell-hooks-eating-the-other-desire-and-resistance-annotated
Django Unchained: A Critical Conversation Between Two Friends
December 31, 2012, The Feminist Wire
http://www.thefeministwire.com/2012/12/django-unchained-a-critical-conversation-between-two-friends/

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

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Description of 4219-SD107-OG in USOSweb