FILMS

I. The following 5 films are to be seen on your own: Please write a 6-8 page reflection paper on the following set of films films which are on reserve in Burling Listening Room. Using insights from readings and class conversations, discuss the central themes and relevance of the films to representations of Americans of African descent in the United States in the public arena.

            Papers due by Fri 31 October 5pm:  C715 Color Adjustment; Midnight Ramble The Story of the Black Film Industry; Bamboozled [representations and misrepresentations of Blackness; popular culture; the politics of accommodation, complicity and resistance]

Papers due Thurs. 18 Dec - noon A Family Thing, Rosewood, [history, memory, identities, family]

II. Films to be seen as a class: (films are available at Burling Library. Over the weekend of scheduled viewing, they will be in the AV Center).

WEEKEND MARATHON:

SAT 30 August 10:00 am  – AFRICANS IN AMERICA part 1 & 2

SUN 31 August  2:15 pm - AFRICANS IN AMERICA part 3 & 4

SUN 28 Sept 2:15 pm Sankofa dir. Haile Gerima

SAT 4 Oct 10:00 am W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in 4 Voices

SUN 12 Oct 2:15 Sugar Cane Alley

SUN 7 Dec 2:15 PM Daughters of the Dust dir. Julie Dash

WEEK #1        "Studying" Americans of African Descent

Thurs 8/28 August –

INTRODUCTIONS: Syllabus, Requirements, Misc.

SAT 30 August 10:00 – AFRICANS IN AMERICA part 1 & 2

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

SUN 31 August  2:15 - AFRICANS IN AMERICA part 3 & 4

Tues 2 Sept

Bring a copy of a map of Africa and a map of the Americas to class.

Read:  Mintz & Price, The Birth of African-American Culture (including introduction!) Write an outline of main points of each chapter (incl page reference).

Thurs. 4 Sept 

St. Clair Drake.(1990)  “Further Reflections on Anthropology and the Black Experience.”

The Construction of Race

[Week 2-3 journal entries will consist of outline and reading notes for each assigned chapter] 

Review websites for “Race the Power of an Illusion” (includes pbs.org supplementary material)

http://www.newsreel.org/guides/race/pressreleasecredit.htm

http://www.newsreel.org/films/race.htm

WEEK #2

Tues. 9 Sept –

Readings from ed. Harding:

*Gould, “American Polygeny...”

*Marshall, “Racial Classifications..”

*Takaki, “Aesculapius..”

Thurs. 11 Sept

Stepan ,”Race and Gender...”

In Class: Race The Power of an Illusion (Part I)

WEEK #3

Tues. 16 Sept

            Stepan and Gilman, “Appropriating the Idioms..”

In Class: Race: The Power of an Illusion (Part II)

Thurs. 18 Sept. 

-- T. Denan Sharpley-Whiting, “Writing Sex, Writing Difference”

In Class: “The Life and Times of Sarah Bartmann”

WEEK #4        Racism and the foundation of  AMERICAN Culture and History

Tues. 23 Sept.

Barbara Fields, “Slavery, Race and Ideology...”

A. Leon Higgenbotham, Jr. “The Supreme Court’s Legitimization of Racism...”

Thurs. 25 Sept.

            -- Phillips, “The African Heritage of White America;”

-- Charles Joyner, “African and European Roots of Southern Culture...”

In Class: That Rhythm, Those Blues

WEEK #5 

** SUN 28 Sept 2:15 pm Sankofa dir. Haile Gerima

Tues 30 Sept-

            -- JSTOR: Pamela Woolford (interview with Haile Gerima), “Filming Slavery.” Transition 64 (1994)  

Thurs 2 Oct –

-- Michel Rolph-Trouillot, “An Unthinkable History.”

SAT 4 Oct 10:00

Because of the Du Bois Symposium, we will jump forward this weekend to see:

Documentary(116 min): W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in 4 Voices

WEEK #6 Race Thinking as a Reference for Self and Other

Required Attendance: Du Bois Symposium. See the calender for time & place of presentations and panels.

Tues 7 Oct

-- Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks: Introduction, Chapt 1-3

Thurs. 9 Oct

-- Fanon: Chapters 4,5,.

WEEK #7

**SUN 12 Oct 2:15 Film: Sugar Cane Alley

Tues. 14 Oct

-- Fanon: Chapters  7, 8:

Thurs 16 Oct

-- Lewis Gordon, “Black Skin Masked: Finding Fanon”

In class: In Class: Franz Fanon (producer, Mark Nash ; director, Isaac Julien ; written by Isaac Julien & Mark Nash).

SEMESTER BREAK

WEEK #8

Tues 28 Oct

Morrison: Preface & 1-60

Thurs.  30 Oct

            Morrison 61-91

WEEK #9 Antiquity, Blackness and the Idea of Africa/ns

Tues. 4 Nov

            Martin Bernal. “Introduction.” Black Athena.

Thurs. 6 Nov

Denise McCoskey, “Reading Cleopatra When Race Matters.”

In Class: The Murder of Emmett Till

WEEK #10 The political and conceptual efficacy of DuBois’ concept of “race.”

Tues. 11 Nov

            W.E.B. Du Bois , “Conservation of Races”

            In Class: W.E.B. Du Bois of Great Barrington [W3714]

Thurs. 13 Nov

Reading: Judith Stein, “Defining the Race..” 

In Class: Walk in My Shoes (NAACP)

WEEK #11

Tues. 18 Nov

Appiah, “The Uncompleted Argument”

            Lucius Outlaw; “On W.E.B. DuBois’ ‘Conservation of Race’;”

THURS: NO CLASS

WEEK #12

Tues. 25 Nov

K. Gibel Azoulay,(1996)  “In Our Parents House...”

A. Appiah (1996) “Reconstructing Racial Identities

Thanksgiving Break

WEEK #13

Tues 2 Dec 

In Class: Race the Floating Signifier -- Videotaped Lecture by Stuart Hall

            There is no journal entry for Stuart Hall’s lecture -- Instead turn in typed notes from listening to it.

Thurs 4 Dec

Mercer Kobena. "Black Hair/Style Politics."

In Class: Hairpiece

SUNDAY 7 Dec 2:15 PM Film: Daughters of the Dust dir. Julie Dash

Tues. 9 Dec

Read J. Bobo Daughters of the Dust (2 Chapters) 133-166 – discussion of Daughters of the Dust

Thurs Dec 11

JSTOR: Adrian Piper, “Passing for White/Passing for Black.” Transition 58 (1992) 4-32.

Lisa Jones, “Looking for Mariah”

COMPLETE JOURNALS DUE NO LATER THAN Noon THURS. DECEMBER 18.

NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE GRANTED. -- This consists of all your written work, with my comments -- do not print new copies! 

NOTE: If you will be on campus, submit in an envelope with your campus box number..If you will NOT be on campus next semester submit your material in a stamped self-addressed envelope.