Professor Douglas A. Jones
Black Culture and Performance
THEATRST 550S / AAAS 550S / ENGLISH 550S
W 12 - 2:30 p.m.
R, W, ALP, CCI
128 Bryan Center John M. Clum Seminar Room
Theater Studies Major - Area 2 (Dramatic Literature, Theater History, Performance Studies)
AAAS Major and Minor - Satisfies Americas Requirement
What is black embodiment? Black feeling? Black performance? This course explores these questions, among others, by taking up three major cultural movements: New Negro/Harlem Renaissance; Black Arts Movement; and contemporary "post-blackness." We will study black drama, performance art, visual art, and film. Major writers and artists might include Marita Bonner, Zora Neale Hurson, Adrienne Kennedy, Alice Childress, Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka, Aleshea Harris, Brendan Jacobs-Jenkins, Barry Jenkins, and Jackie Sibblies Drury. We will also read theories of identity formation, racialized experience, and black life, among other prevailing concerns in Black (Performance) Studies.
R, W, CCI, ALP - open to graduates and advanced undergraduates