Lyndon K Gill

While providing an introduction to various artists and intellectuals of the black queer diaspora, this seminar examines the distinct socio-cultural, historical and geographical contexts in which same-sex desire and gender variance are embraced or contested in African diasporic communities.

This multi-disciplinary course explores various experiences and theories of sex/intimacy/desire alongside intellectual and artistic engagements with power hierarchies and spirituality across black communities within and beyond the borders of the United States. We will consider the concept of “erotic subjectivity” from various theoretical and methodological angles principally within African Diasporic contexts.

Texts:

Alexander, M. Jacqui

    2005    Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics,

        Memory and the Sacred. Durham: Duke University Press.

Allen, Jafari

    2011    ¡Venceremos? The Erotics of Black Self-making in Cuba. Durham: Duke

        University Press.

Holland, Sharon P.

    2012    The Erotic Life of Racism. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hopkinson, Nalo

    2003    The Salt Roads. New York: Warner Books.

Murphy, Joseph and Mei-Mei Sanford

    2001    Osun Across the Waters: A Yoruba Goddess in Africa and the Americas.

        Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

Tinsley, Omise’eke

    2010    Thiefing Sugar: Eroticism Between Women in Caribbean Literature. Durham:

        Duke University Press.

Grading:

Attendance                                                                              10%

Two class discussion facilitations                                                   20%

Five one-pg response papers                                                        30%

2 Quizzes                                                                                10%

Final paper                                                                              30%

Erotic Subjectivity: Spirit, Power, Sex and Selfhood in the African Diaspora   This multi-disciplinary course explores various notions of black ‘selfhood’ through the lens of the erotic. We will consider sex/intimacy/desire alongside political and spiritual consciousness in our assessment of the relationship between subjectivity and Eros.   (While the course is being offered at the graduate level, advanced undergraduates may be admitted at the discretion of the instructor.)   *Please Note: This course deals with aspects of gender and sexuality in a candid and explicit manner at times. Students who do not feel comfortable with this approach should not take the course. If you choose to take this course, you have agreed to respect our classroom as a safe space. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, or- of course- ‘erotophobia’ of any sort will not be tolerated.

This interdisciplinary course explores over two decades of work produced by and about queer subjects of African descent throughout the circum-Atlantic world. While providing an introduction to various artists and intellectuals of the black queer diaspora, this seminar examines the distinct socio-cultural, historical and geographical contexts in which same-sex desire and gender variance are embraced or contested in African diasporic communities. We will interrogate the transnational and transcultural mobility of specific aesthetics as well as racial, gender, and sexual identity categories more broadly. Our aim is to use artisitic experession to highlight the dynamic relationship between African Diaspora Studies and Queer Studies.

TEXTS:

Brand, Dionne. In Another Place, Not Here, New York: Grove Press, 1996

Glave, Thomas. Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from The Antilles, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008

Johnson, E. Patrick and Mae G. Henderson, Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005

Morgan, Ruth and Saskia Wieringa. Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men, and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-Sex Practicies in Africa, Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2005.

Murray, Stephen O. and Will Roscoe. Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.