Senior Seminar: Black Aesthetics

In this course we will consider aesthetic manifestos generated throughout the 20th century by African-American artists and critics. Each statement reflects its authors’ struggle to balance concerns about individual and collective creative practice and identity politics. We will situate each document in its cultural historical context and consider artwork from various media—literature, visual art, music, and film—made in response to each manifesto. Topics include the benefits and challenges inherent in race-based aesthetics; the geographies of each artistic movement; questions of class and gender that shape the statements; and the position of each manifesto in a global context. (Open to American Studies majors; others may register with instructor’s approval)