in HHHCtr 35
Instructor: Dr. Njeri Githire
This upper level undergraduate/graduate seminar explores the dynamics of black women's texts from Africa through Europe to the Americas and beyond. Selected writers will include Ama Ata Aidoo,Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, Maryse Condé, Jamaica Kincaid, Calixthe Beyala, Gisèle Pineau, Simone Schwartz-Bart,... just to mention but a few.
The course will:
- Examine the intersections of colonialism/slaveryand racism, classism, sexism ...;
- Understand the gendering of historical memory and cultural identity;
- Identify how acts of resistance inform women's writing;
- Explore the connections between gender, space, place, and power/empowerment;
- Study the role of language, myth, orality and other forms of folk culture in women's narratives;
- Examine representations of the body and self-image in women's narratives;
Note: half the texts studied in this seminar have originally been written in French. Students
of French who wish to read the texts in the original and write their course
papers in French may feel free to do so.
