230281 The Souls of Black Folk? Literary Representations of and by African Americans- The Insider/Outsider Binary (S) (SoSe 2015)

When W.E.B. DuBois wrote "The Souls of Black Folk" in 1903, the title's absolutism served simple and vital purposes: unification and empowerment of disenfranchised and disrespected African-Americans. When Margaret Mitchell waxes lyrical about Blacks' alleged inherent eagerness to serve and please in "Gone with the Wind", these racist generalizations make us cringe. As a minority group that is subject to racism, discrimination and misunderstanding, African-Americans have often been framed by outsiders' imaginations. White writers have sought to epitomize the "Souls of Black Folk", their habits and dialects, while Black writers have countered these often monolithic representations with their own narratives.
In cooperation with Anne Schröder's class on AAVE we will juxtapose the outsider's and the insider's perspective on Black lives in the US, drawing on literary texts that span centuries.