Reading & Composition

The notion that racial identity is socially constructed is by now a widely familiar one. Yet race continues to exert a powerful influence over how society is structured and how we view ourselves and others. If race cannot be meaningfully described as having a “real” biological or objective existence, why and how does it persist in shaping our social, cultural, and political practices? What exactly do we mean when we refer to race as a “social construct?” In this course we will discuss these questions by way of talking and writing about a series of texts  that take on the topic of race from a number of contexts and perspectives. We will be focusing on the question of the role literature has played in both the formation and questioning of racial identities, as well as the concept of race itself. A comparison of ancient and modern literature will allow us to ask whether there have always been racial forms of identity or whether they are specific to the modern era. The class will also consider the paradoxical tendency of literature to construct and define racial identities at the same time that it criticizes them and explores their problematic nature. Though we will be focusing on the particular case of blackness as a racial identity associated with the African Diaspora, a consideration of other identities and their interrelations will allow for a more wide-ranging discussion.

Readings

Herodotus, The Histories (selections)

William Shakespeare, Othello

Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro

Herman Mellville, Benito Cereno

Aime Cesaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land

Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go

V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Additional readings will be available in a course reader