Department of English

How is blackness produced, disseminated and received across sonic, visual and written media? It is understood as a racial category, a cultural aesthetic, or a politics? Can it ever be considered a color amongst other colors? This course is situated at the conceptually unstable but intellectually productive intersection of sound, optics and text. It seeks to use this intersection to speculate on the question of blackness within media, artistic and political practice. The intention is interrogate how the category of blackness animates and disrupts many of the sensory experiences of the world within global capitalism.

The content of the course will be built around two strands:

1 - In-depth readings of critical theory largely sourced from the fields of black diasporic thought, art, radicalism, and cultural studies.

2 - Intensive engagement with a wide range of cultural forms including popular and underground music, television, experimental film, poetics, performance and visual art.