COMP 214
Defining the African Diaspora
Last Offered Spring 2009
Division II
Cross-listed ENGL 251 / AFR 160 / COMP 214
This course is not offered in the current catalog

What is the “African diaspora”? How are we to understand the nature of black belonging? Are the relationships across the African diaspora mutable? What factors facilitate or complicate black identity over time and space? This introductory course will take up these questions by turning to (a) key figures and essays and (b) the fiction, poetry, and film from across the black world. To help better understand the conditions of transnational black identity, we will turn to the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, Amie Cesaire, Paule Marshall, Toni Cade Bambara, Marcus Garvey, Frantz Fanon, Caryl Phillips, and Julie Dash, among others. In the process, we will take up defining cultural and political movements that have emerged over the years: Pan-Africanism, Negritude, and other forms of black internationalism.