Black Sexual Cultures: Across Page, Stage, and Screen

This undergraduate course explores the representation, expression, and politics of Black sexuality through an interdisciplinary range of literary texts and visual media. We will focus on canonical, popular, and marginalized voices of Black life and sexual histories, with a focus on a queer archive. Students will benefit from screenings, in-class activities, guest visits, and field trips. Discussions will include discourses of power, performance, culture, ritual, resistance, intersectionality, and the body as text. By the end of this course, students will have gained a deeper appreciation for the complexity and diversity of Black sexuality, as well as the cultural and political implications that surround its literary productions. They will be equipped with the critical tools to engage in meaningful dialogues about representation, expression, and the power of pleasure within the context of Black life and sexual legacies. Authors whose work we will engage will include Audre Lorde, Jeremy O. Harris, E. Patrick Johnson, Patricia Hill Collins, George M. Johnson, bell hooks, Marlon Riggs, George C. Wolfe, Sister Souljah, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Donja Love, and Zane.

Please note: This course requires the screening of films and media. Ideally, all students should have internet access to screen materials from home that may not be shown during in-class sessions.