Department of English

This course is concerned with orders of the world that the writer refuses, with a particular focus this fall on the articulation of the world by what is called the "black radical tradition." It is about imagining “outside” and making peace with its impossibility, or virtuality. As such the course will be a formal experiment. For about the first half of the course, we will collaboratively read the texts I select. I will then turn the floor to you. We’ll come to a consensus about additional texts that enact “world’s” formal fragmentation; these will guide independent weekly research and writing for the remainder of the course. Possible readings include X: the Problem of the Negro as a Problem for Thought (Nahum Dmitri Chandler); Toward a Global Idea of Race and Unpayable Debt (Denise Ferreira da Silva); selected essays by Fred Moten, Black Marxism (Cedric Robinson); and selected essays by Hortense Spillers. M.A. students may enroll without permission and Design MFA students are encouraged to enroll. Submatriculated undergraduates should contact the instructor for permission to join the course and should submit a permit request when adding the course to their cart.