About

What do we take for granted about the function of particular forms of writing? Is a research article meant to deliver “legitimate” information? Is a profile meant to sketch an image of an individual figure? Is poetry meant to express emotions rather than forward an argument? Writers like Saidiya Hartman, June Jordan, and M. NourbeSe Philip have produced work that both articulates and troubles the boundaries of these questions. This course will focus on the ways in which Black essayists, poets, visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, and theorists of the late twentieth and twenty-first century radically collage compositional forms in order to imagine new forms of expression. We will begin by looking at the formal collaging of Black artists working in the late twentieth century and trace these traditions to more recent work, such as Janelle Monáe’s “Dirty Computer” and Beyoncé’s “Lemonade.” While these texts may push against historical narratives in some moments, they are not ahistorical. We will contextualize our course texts by thinking through the stakes of Black artistic expression in the United States given the struggles for recognition and liberation that emerge from the violent upheavals of the transatlantic slave trade. We will also consider our expectations of how particular forms do and should work as one of “course texts.” Students will compose reading responses throughout the semester that give them opportunities to make arguments about our readings and to practice their own formal experimentation. With the additional support of group workshop, students will develop a final project over the course of the semester that will include an artist’s statement on their own formal style.

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