Negro Apocalypse: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Poetics of Heartbreak
In Black Reconstruction in America, Du Bois writes: “What was slavery in the United States? Just what did it mean to the owner and the owned?” But these are trick questions in a work of history that dwells in the moment of slavery’s endtime for 800 pages to consider the failure of emancipation and reconstruction to materialize black freedom. The questions become, What was jubilee? Just what did it mean? Did slavery end?
Beginning with an extended reading of Black Reconstruction in America, this course focuses on Du Bois’ six decade struggle to come to terms, in language, with the receding promise of emancipation (which he called the “negro apocalypse”). We trace the poetics of heartbreak in other works including The Souls of Black Folk, Dusk of Dawn, and Dark Princess.
Course requirements will include an oral presentation and two short essays.