engl 271 study guide

Page 1

week two - racism and discourse

- discourses influence politics and shape ideologies (eg: us immigration)

jackie kay

- scottish poet and novelist

- third poet to hold title of 'makar' (british poetry laureate)

race, racist, racism

lines 1-4

- intro/basis to how the poem is going to work

- "say the words came first" - think before speaking

say first, looking follows (finding someone/something physical to attach your words to)

kind of like an excuse - she doesn't believe the words came before the thoughts; racism is ingrained

touching on how racism has manifested historically

only once the words came did the racism follow

"fear of touch"

fear of intimacy, contamination...

race begins w words and discourse

lines 2.1-3

when racism happens, the responsibility of how to react is on her shoulders

is this a form of (internalized) racism?

she can either challenge that racism (thus risking her life) or let it pass (compromising her integrity and dignity)

it's in my head

"you're imagining things, i wasn't being racist"

she is the one who has to deal with racism emotionally and psychologically AFTER the fact

lines 3.1-1

the nation gives a personified version of racism to it's people as a gift

to have someone infiltrate ruptures their idea of their nation

reminiscent on how colonizers came off boats and took over

the nation sees itself as racially homogenous

idea/ideology (racism) as pathology --> it spreads like disease

"and it's true: many people died"

reminding us of the concrete reality of racism

disease and ideology; a slippage in the metaphor (racism is a disease)

lines 5.1-2: racist history of 'eenie meenie miney mo'

lines 6.5-6

there is no end in sight to racism

we should be able to imagine a world without racism, but we can't

repetition of the first line

acknowledge the role of words/discourse in racism

words, followed by their actions

wk two - class two

why do black ppl have such an issue with where their cultural identity lies?

why can't they take their culture as a given?

"trauma" can be used in a cultural sense, not just personal

can be embedded into a culture

cultural identity - stuart hall

cultural identity is stable, fixed and located in the usually precolonial past

hall says we should not fully throw out this first idea of cultural identity, as it is crucial to the later development of cultural identity

discourses of history and culture that we negotiate while defining our identity

we constantly return to our pre-colonial past, while also making sure we move forward

what happened in the past is crucial for recreation and rebuilding

presences of the black diaspora

african presence

repressed culture that is being revived in recent years

european presence

presence of the culture of the colonizing force, and how blacks were able to reclaim and rebuild

american/new world presence

territories where blacks have settled, and many (black) cultures have integrated w one another

territories have been vacated by genocide or force, thus helping shape black culture/identity

diaspora

a society that has been exiled from their homeland/place of origin

they are forced to disperse to different parts of the world, and their community is based on that exile, and desire to eventually return

jewish diaspora --> jews were exiled from egypt

the term was later used to explain other similar scenarios

large-scale return to their origin place is not only impossible, but undesirable

people don't want to return to their past - literally/physically, and culturally

abd al-malik

frnech-congolese slam poet, rapper, film director, author

sometimes differs from stuart hall's understanding of diaspora (in ways)

gibraltar (rap)

jumpy sounding, uneasy - lots of sounds, messy in nature

about a black man who escapes a past of drugs and violence to go to europe to find a new life

only once he goes into europe will he find this life - needs to leave africa for europe

he feels he is w/o a home land - if he can find colonial perspective of 'white is right' success elsewhere, he might be able to make a home/find happiness

he has no home in his place of origin; he is in exile in a way

the epiphany of the song - he is still the same person leaving, but he is hoping to find the right environment for him to prosper

however, instead of continuing on his journey, he feels the urge to return back to his home in morocco

he is looking for a home that he has never had

through wanted to leave and returning (not going through w it), he has created a home for himself

begins to look for home and happiness within himself rather than in money/success/material things

no place for a black man in a white society, so he creates one for himself

sinnerman, nina simone (sample)

important black american jazz singer

homage to her: american black presence

diaspora: he is french-congolese w no relation to america

he gestures to her bc there is a shared connection/understanding of colonialism

Page 2

week three - class one

atlantic slavery

the biggest mass migration of black people from africa

the great (northward) migration

black ppl lived in south USA in the early 1900s

to distance themselves from the south where they survived a history of slavery, they migrated to northern USA and california

liberia reparation

people in eastern canada (19th c) collected free black people as an attempt of reparation

they sent them to liberia, but then there was a diverge between people native to liberia, and the freed slaves that were sent there

not all black people are the same, as there are so many distinctions between various black cultures

windrush generation (named after the ship that moved them)

colonial africans to the carribbean

first ship of 500+ carribbeans to england

marks the start of a multicultural post-war generation

recently, they've been trying to deport descendants of that generation from london

the movements of black diaspora are not always in the control of the people

also, sometimes it was a concerted effort to find a better life for themselves

edwidge danicat

haitian-american novelist and short-story writer

her work most often explores ideas of memory and migration

without inspection

the story does not follow the 'traditional' narrative structure/form --> chronological/linear

newer short stories tend not to follow this traditional narrative bc it has been done so many times

new innovations in the way we write/tell stories

arnold is chiefly adverse to attachment

not from people, just from objects

his lifestyle growing up did not allow for him to keep many material objects

he moves to the USA for freedom, not to get rich, which is a commonly accepted stereotype

he has no money and few possessions

"single story" of immigrants

"it was simpler to be free . free as this fall, which he hasn't intended nor chosen"

his freedom wasn't a choice

siren call --> image

urgency, necessity to move from port-de-paix to miami

needed to satisfy this need to sooth the siren - not something he could choose to ignore

the desire for paris' father to move to france stems from the idea of belonging, as well as rebuilding black culture in france

neo-colonial understanding of the USA

so much power/influence that they've become a center

there's an ideal image of france and the USA

though it may not have anything to do with what it's really like to live there, it serves as a fabricated sense of home, which they feel when picturing these places

darline wanted to move to miami to follow her husband

home is not a place, it is the feeling you get when you're with the people you love

realistic way of portraying death as a dream-like sequence

open to interpretation

freedom

as he dies, he is free in every sense but physical

in this story, freedom is not absolute

sort of a challenge of freedom in the USA (social commentary of being a 'true' american; american citizen - legal vs illegal)

they want to take paris on a plane so he can experience freedom in a symbolic way

boats (how they all got to the states) move on water; planes move above it

boat

chevy raft, arnold + paris make paper boats to help cope with the trauma ensued by their trip over to miami

boat vs plane

both modes of transportation and vehicles for freedom

plane is idyllic - free to the contraints of the boats, more proper and regulated

if you can make it through US customs, you've made it and you're safe

boat is unconventional, secretive

chevy raft - american-made car, fixed up by cubans, being used to get back to the USA where they risk deportation

symbolic relationship between cuba and USA (historically)

irony bc the boat is a car and not meant to be in the water

kind of like the immigrants are not meant to be in the USA

challenging the impossibility of illegal immigration and impossibility of driving a car on water

paper planes

arnold's longing for freedom, ever since his childhood

signifies his desire for freedom, to leave, to live w/o attachments

week three - class two

reading space and time in the black diaspora

black lit sees the present as being perpetually informed by history

contemporary black lit will never forget the past

it is always returning back to the past -- eg: atlantic slave trade

in the literary-artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators are fused into one careful, thought-out, concrete whole

time becomes artistically visible

space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time, plot, and history

this intersection of axes and fusion of indicators characterizes the artistic chronotope

time and space are not mutually exclusive

grace nichols

guyanese poet, novelist, short-story, non-fiction writer

born in guyana

web of kin

begins by referencing the origins of the speaker (without mentioning a place)

certain characteristics that are signifiers of her home-place

season-of-locusts

allusion to novel 'things fall apart' - a blessing (=food)

biblically, locusts are a plague

complex idea - not wholly a negative/positive image

lines 1-10: she is speaking of her african origin w/o naming a place

'coral reefs'

trope of carribbean origins (poetry)

coming from the sea

"distant tum tum pounding"

she is no longer there, but comes from there

she exists both outside and inside of her origin

"i come from web of kin"

she comes from an amalgamation of places and influences, rather than just one place

web = family tree

or, an alternative to a family tree

she is denying the use of the phrase 'family tree', as a tree has a single origin

the web is interconnected, bringing things together to the center (her) from all angles

a movement in any part of the web can cause a disturbance

"yam" - nigeria

envisions motherhood as being something of extreme sacrifice

"burden"

the word is enjambed - it stands alone

not a positive sacrifice - saying our children are a burden

sort of talking about the way people treat their women, and how they should be mothers to their own children

"bleeding slowly at the altars of their children"

she will pour the sacrificed blood into the dust to set them (women, mothers) free

she will not feel the pain of the whip, or the fire of the sun, of the flame

"offering of their silent women / suffering"

equating silence and suffering

they shall suffer silently; they silently suffer

"mother" instead of "motherhood"

uses mother bc she comes from a country of strong women

they are reduced to being used as vessels for children

motherhood=slavery

ideas of intersectional feminism

bearing the gourds of their sacrificial blood

menstruation

lines 25-38: focus on the middle passage

she imagines herself crossing these routes with her ancestors

not in a masochistic way, but in a way of mourning, paying respect

romanticizes it with flowers and junk

repetition of the term 'recline'

she can rest, as her ancestors were unable to

she feeds children the stories of their ancestors

she is thankful for the sacrifice of her ancestors, and honours that she is able to be free and relax by telling her next of kin

"hair full of sun"

the sun is no longer blistering (as it was on her slave ancestors), but rather glimmering, shining on her

contrasting earlier lines of mentioning the blistering sun

she tells these stories to the children to expand the web of kin

olive senior

jamaican-canadian poet, novelist, short-story and non-fiction author

born and lived in jamaica, until she resettled in canada in the early 1990's

ancestral poem

her ancestors and their plight are closer than some like to admit

they influence her every day, even if she doesn't realize it

contrast of modern imagery in the first four lines (modern) to rural/traditional imagery + words

the action of her father farming is rhythmic; it comes naturally to him

even though his skills are rooted in years of brutal slavery

comforting for her, possibly disturbing for him

repetition of rhythm

last stanza: act of balancing her different realities

image of balancing water jugs on her head

she cannot distance herself from her ancestry

Page 3

week four - class one

black power fist - symbol

USA 1960's --> present day

blackness is transnational and shows that discourse has its oppositions

sign of blackness is mobile, pervasive

can move across countries

zadie smith

british novelist, short story writer, essayist

her work is eclectic, but often explores feminism, race, and multiculturalism in contemporary britain

her recording of her story on the new yorker website is considered text AND paratext

crazy they call me

short story written as a dramatic monologue

the recording of smith as billie holliday shows an intimate connection between herself and holliday

by adopting an american 1940's accent, she is playing a character separate from herself

billie holliday is a real person, but the story is fictional

it's familiar/intimate for both smith and the reader

through her use of 'you', she is inviting you to become this character

the photograph of holliday prior to the story is paratext

caring, sensitive --> contrast to her brash characterization

melancholy, contemplative look

intertext

biographical info of billie holliday coming to life

1930's jazz music titles are alluded to

"all respect to ella, sarah --> allusion to ella fitzgerald and sarah vaughan

this story is as much about music as it is about billie's life

she is well-versed and aware of how the world treats 'people like her'

jaded, realistic characterization --> not negative, not insecure

first passage

pepi is the center of her world

holliday has no kids or spouse

dog is a reflection of billie

people kick vulnerable things down like her and pepi for fun all the time

holliday was a known opioid user

no one but the dog can bring her back from her overdose

she does not respond to the violent attempts to bring her back - she only responds to the sweet attempt by her dog

the dog is the only one she can trust with her whole heart

she used to have a big dog (for protection)

eventually she got the smaller dog bc she needed her tender intimacy

passage two (physical appearance)

getting all made up takes a long time

it's hard work but she needs it - it's her armour

weave: hair for a black woman, embodied a lot of double-consiousness

she has to be black, but also has to be american

has to do double the work to keep up with the rest

black hair = bad hair

good hair = straight and easy to manage

black hair is frizzy and thick

lots of products to hide this part of her identity and to help her conform

her hair is another mask

she hides her blackness from the world

lightening of skin w makeup is another way to hide her blackness

this 'masking' prevents people from taking advantage of her vulnerability and prevent people from walking all over her

passage three (performance)

limits and boundaries

she has to feel her way through her music

it's frustrating when people don't respond to her music in a respectful way, or as she'd like them to --> they just don't get it

her audience has to be deserving and open to her music in order to get the best performance

300 years of heartache --> plight of black people in america

the connection between smith and holliday is through the black identity that they share --> back to the idea of 'web of kin'

week four - class two

atlantic slavery and slave ships

painting: slaves being thrown overboard

done to claim insurance money, or if they were sick

dark colors in the wake of the ship = intense

bright white on the distant sky

illustration: how slaves were packed in ships when sent over

shoulder to shoulder, like sardines

tight as possible, good to alleviate the issue of waste and disease

more slaves you could pack, less important their losses were

slaveship = chronotope of the atlantic slave trade

symbol of the black diaspora

loss of home, loss of identity

money produced by 'product' (slaves) weakened connections between black communities, and fuelled economies of the people who ran the slave trade

the economic system that was produced to support/proliferate the capture, sale, and trade of slaves and distribute the goods were produced through plantation slavery

cannibalism

for a long time, europeans attached the ideas of cannibalism to barbaric inferiors

but the africans on the slave ships thought the white people were cannibals, and taking them for food

the slave narrative

often testimonials of their lives as slaves, depicting their movement from capture, to enslavement, to eventual freedom

stating what they've gone through to attain their freedom

after slavery was abolished, their texts still remain to keep alive their stories

their target audience was abolitionists, or even people who were on the fence about slavery

this was at the time when slavery was still up for discussion

difference of neo-slave narrative is the fictional aspect

why do we need new versions of the slave narrative

shows how the slave trade impacted future generations

traces the development of the ideas and lives of those impacted --> repercussions

idea that is is not petrified in the past

it is still alive and well (in different ways) in our daily lives

ties the experience of contemporary lives with the experiences of the past

neo-slave narrative ties together the collective histories of the black diaspora

homegoing - yaa gyasi

family tree = thematic symbol of memory and kinship

the yam is a recurring symbol in african and black diasporatic literature

the families depicted in this novel are complicated

non-traditional, lots of issues...

the tree as a motif

family tree

effia's violent dream --> shattering the family tree

freedom (ness and sam)

identity --> they climb trees

james and effia

we know the fante are trading with the british from their castle on cape coast

this complicates the narrative of white people coming in and taking everything

powerful black ppl are involved in trading slaves for white goods

along w trade, there are political marriages

though it is implied, we learn that the primary 'goods' that the fante trade with are slaves

cape coast

beautiful on top, but underground are slaves packed tight in cells (like the slave ship)

they are not humans, but 'cargo'

effia's sister is kept underneath as cargo

there is no real reason why effia is above the ground and esi is beneath it, other than pure chance

they are reflections of one another (foil/double)

their lineage and histories eventually occur at the same time; one family in the USA, one in ghana

esi

first impression, we see esi and other slaves being treated like animals

boxed in cages, living in their own filth and literal shit

animal // human

blacks and indigenous folks = animals

women = BARELY human

men = only true human

comparison of esi and co as animalistic slaves

they are not human, so they are meant to be slaves

this justifies the reason for slavery

living in shit

deprivation of cleanliness

dehumanizing --> taking away the sanity of these women

Page 4

week five - class one = MISSING

week five - class two

racial classification of skin color (epidermalization of inferiority)

pseudo-scientific on the emphasis of how black ppls skin color is classified

it's not just black and white --> literally and figuratively

black ppl need to get as close to white as possible to be accepted; they must aspire for whiteness

whiteness is aspired after both in how ppl act AND their physical skin tone

what does it mean to act white/black?

history of stereotypical classifications

racial classification of black ppl in north america

racial classification system is a direct cultural inheritance of slavery

originates from the division of labor on plantations, where slave masters would evaluate where the slave would be the most useful

slaves were thought to be more/less civilized depending on their skin tone

lighter skin = civilized, better for house work

darker skin = animalistic, better for hard labor

shadeism was so prevalent/pervasive that it still affects racial representation all over the world

popularity of minstrelsy in the USA

what does it say about the nation?

implicit white supremacy and justification

just bc there was no slavery in the north USA, doesn't mean that the people there didn't view black people as less inferior

willie's story - homegoing (yaa gyasi)

willie cannot get a singing job at the jazz bar bc her skin is too dark

people don't want to see that; they think she is not civilized/white enough for the stage

intersectional racism

not only is she black, but also a woman

the jazz bar guy said she might've had a better shot at getting hired to perform if she were a man

willie's first minstrel show

the depictions are extremely offensive

the only reason a dark-skinned man would be allowed on stage was to act as a stereotype of his own people --> textbook discrimination

willie's husband is white-passing, and there is a juxtaposition of her blackness against his whiteness

she starts to really notice it

it is mitigated by the fact that they are living in pratt city (black-tolerant society) and their love

once they move, robert realizes his skin color is a major privelage

he knows he is black, but uses his light skin to socially progress

robert is not fully unaffected

he struggles w double-consciousness

the struggle to hide his blackness and to perform whiteness leads to him sexually assaulting willie in the washroom of the jazz bar

the white men are not holding a gun to his head to make him do it, but they are threatening and holding his white identity over him if he doesn't comply

two different enactments of racism are juxtaposed

minstrel show + sexual assault

both for white male pleasure

willie is unable to sing after the bathroom incident bc she is traumatized

trauma is ones reaction to their inability to prevent inevitable harm

she is able to find eventual closure after her trauma and move on with her life (optimistic)

forgive, but don't forget

by moving on, she is not letting him hurt her anymore, even when he is not around

singing jazz (secular) --> singing gospel (sacred)

ending of homegoing

fire/water imagery

peaceful closure

door of no return

this door used to mean enslavement, but their lineage finally is reaching a point where it means freedom and liberation

Page 5

week six - class one

archetypal stereotypes

harmful to the black image

seen on logos (aunt jemima, uncle bens...), advertisements, magazine covers, jim crowe

men seen as angry, animalistic (eg: lebron james vogue cover)

happy-go-lucky, dumb, lazy...

originates from all over the world, but all have in common the way black people are depicted in a way that is suitable to white audiences

franz fanon

important figure in post-colonial black theory

martinican, physician, psychiatrist, philosopher, writer, revolutionary

martinique = former french colony

author of 'black skin, white masks'

the lived experience of a black man

the people on the train immediately point him out and identify him as a 'negro'

he wanted to have autonomy and find out things about the world, yet he has come to realize he is only valued as an object

now he strives for recognition from "the other" in order to find his liberation

freedom is defined by the other

center (france, whites...) vs margin (french colonies, blacks)

fanon wants to be recognized as part of the center, but he is not

his struggle of being a black man only becomes evident when subjected to the white gaze

this gaze makes him so conscious of his body that it destroys his sense of bodily integration

through the workings of racism, black ppl are not only responsible for their own representation, but the representation of all blacks

always pressured to be on his best behaviour

fanon is always reduced to his skin color -- he is already determined by the history of his race

his choices of words to describe his experience (explode, fragment, collapse, weight...) is attributed to the analogy of fragmentation and disapora

his words are cosmic in nature --> physics background

he is in his own universe, and is being stripped of that totality by the other

the history of blackness, of every black person represented, is etched into his skin

under this weight of the other, he is reduced to a shall consisting only of his skin

he begins by seeing himself as a man, but knows he is only seen by others as a negro

the french are not willing to recognize him as a man, so he asserts himself as a man

he moves through his essay from man --> negro --> black man, but he realizes he is unable to escape his categorization as a negro

blacks have added pressure due to the stereotype of savages, morons...

challenging

any failure on the part of the black man becomes a failure of his race

denying their humanity, as it is part of being human to make mistakes

imposter syndrome

he is trying to belong to france, but his blackness prevents him from doing so

as long as he works effectively, he will be considered a prime example of the negro race; once he fails to keep up his appearance, he is immediately reduced back to a savage negro

he carries the burden of himself, as well as every black person who comes after him

other black people are a part of himself, both those who come before AND after himself

it is a cycle of mere misunderstanding due to stereotypes

the little boy is taught to jump to horrible conclusions, and fear him

shivering while cold is something he cannot control; much like his skin is something he cannot control

you can't blame him for trembling, much like you can't blame the boy for being afraid of him; you can only educate him

week six - class two

alice walker coined the term "womanism

unlike feminism, it does not emphasize or privilege gender or sexism

rather, it elevates all sites and forms of oppression to a level of equal concern and action

womanism > feminism

intersectional oppression (via youtube comments on the above video)

the way it is defined now, intersectional feminism addresses the issues of feminism that white women do not experience

until hopefully one day it'll all seamlessly blend together into one overarching concept

currently, intersectional feminism is defined by issues that white women do not face

many comments were left for the sole purpose of angering others

not only anti-feminist, but racist and sexist as well

a video talking about black feminism is subject to attracting hatred from multiple angles

white men and women

even black men

in black feminism, there is a triple consciousness, which is the inescapability of competing identities in the black feminine consciousness

black, female, american

if she can somehow escape one of these identities, she will still be oppressed by the other two; it is difficult to break this cycle of oppression

nalo hopkinson

jamaican-canadian novelist, short story writer, and editor

writes speculative fiction based on her afro-carribbean heritage

her work often imagines a pan-carribbean (communities and languages)

multilingual; based on spanish/french colonizing of the carribbean islands

her work also integrates sexism and racism

glass bottle trick is based off of the 'blue beard' fairytale

the glass bottle trick

story begins with an extremely tenuous nature

pathetic fallacy

a storm is brewing, but refuses to break

right off the bat, we see a playfully tenuous relationship from sammy and bea

he is manipulative and controlling, but she is always able to justify his reasons for treating her this way, creating these rules for her

the vibe of the story begins warm, hot - like an oven warming up

not too hot to do anything about it, but just warm enough to enjoy it and butter her up

flips often and seamlessly between him being creepy/possessive, and kind/protective

beatrice's mind justifying his strange behaviours

he views her white skin as powerful and necessary

worships the power her white skin gives her, and peripherally gives him

desire for whiteness embedded in colonialism/societal views

he really believes black = bad and white = good

his love isn't for her, but for her skin

he epidermalizes her and reduces her to just her skin

sam wants to become 'the other'

no part of him is rejecting this desire

motifs

egg, bottle, temperature

heavy gothic undertones

constant allusions to fairytales throughout the story

bluebeard, hansel + gretel, gingerbread, beauty and the beast, black beauty

as a universal beauty standard, white women are seen as more beautiful

white is the goal - this is the postcolonial impact on beauty standards

Page 6

week seven - class one MISSING

week seven - class two

tau lewis

self-taught sculptor

character one (blue, sitting)

defeat - blue; looks like paint was poured over him

cant tell 'real' skin color

he came from the ocean (slavery)

only other figure deliberately facing the others

casual position (vulnerable)

weak, would be hard to get up from fast

however, less sense of anxiety, more of a contemplative state

character two (ocean lady)

garbage ocean lady, seaweed

looks like she's following something

emerging from the ocean?

slow, stumbling, feet angled inwards

also representing the atlantic slave trade

webbed feet - no toes?

aquatic specimen

"assemblage"

idea from her art can also be applied to literature

she belongs to the water

character three (naked book lady w dream journal)

her page is open on a dictionary definition of 'mermaid'

intimate, looks as though she is lounging in her bedroom

why is she white (instead of blue) - no oceanic imagery (save for written in the book)

the blue figures don't have a choice with being associated with the water

she is really smooth - juxtaposition to the other figures, she is the most wholly depicted

character four (wire man with slave dog)

similar to blue lady - she looks like she is trying to follow/walk towards the wire dog, but the white guy has chained him

they are diagonal from one another

the white wire man is controlling is dog-slave

each figure represents someone in tau lewis' family

kinship, familial relationships

abrogation, appropriation, and assemblage in "crossing the river"

opening sentence is a fragmented confession

dad sold his children into slavery - necessary/desperate and regretful action

cant immediately condemn him for this

parts in italics are historical testimonies from real slave traders

assemblage - taking these already existing testimonies and appropriating them to fit into his story

the way those interjections interrupt the narrative flow can also be considered a form of abrogation

abrogation: repudiating/disputing/challenging colonial/imperial ways of thinking

interruption of the narrative flow (?)

contextualize/re-contextualizes the historic statements of the slaves as a way to rethink history

his family is forced to sink hopeful roots into difficult soil

in terms of colonialism, slavery, and even abolition, there was a discourse of paternalism that was tied to the project of civilizing

textbook colonialism - attempting to replicate himself in 'the other'

africa is seen as empty land bc they're not being used

at least not in the same way that the colonizer uses land

different does not mean wrong

Page 7

week eight - class one

slave auction - virginia 1861 (image)

this depiction is more sympathetic

there is an entire family up for auction, rather than solitary slaves

families were often not sold together

auction is taking place indoors --> domestic

men don't look too interested - they are relaxing

just another business transaction that happens all the time

this drawing was published in a london news paper post-abolition

USA was still doing slaves

kind of like saying 'look we're better cause we dont do slaves anymore'

detachment

how were humans turned into commodities during the slave trade?

how were they reduced to mere numbers in a ledger?

how does one attain rights to be 'human' - the right to have rights

dependent on the socio-political climate at the time

to understand the black diaspora is to understand the political conditions that exclude them from the category of human, and how their community shapes and is shaped by their response to that exclusion

personification of martha in crossing the river (caryl phillips)

lucas tells martha that the slave master died, so they are being transported to the auction block

she is an old woman seeking shelter in the denver winter

someone takes her to a spare cabin, where she freezes to death

dream sequence, rememberance

by giving shelter to martha, she is in a sense, giving her personhood and personifying her

since this woman arbitrarily personifies her, someone can take it away just as easily

you do not decide if you are a person, everyone around you does

in this case, the black woman is only a person when the white woman says so

the neo-slave narrative attempts to demonstrate the dimensions of what it means to be objectified

objectification

as property, slaves are not seen to possess familial or kinship bonds, at most they (these relations) are seen as impediments to commerce

bonds with family and friends are ruptured when taken, bonds from the middle passage are ruptured, all bonds they make are ruptured bc they are treated like animals and moved around with no regard for their relationships

commodification

with any object, the death of it's owner means the property goes to another owner - this includes slaves

martha sees the reduction of her family into property by comparing them and herself to household objects

commodification was based on health, strength, obedience, and their ability to perform certain tasks

"my sentimentality extends the length of a coin" (twelve years a slave)

commercial detachment (by denying their humanity, slave master can justify his actions)

the letters newton sends home to his wife expresses a deep sentimentality for the slaves that is juxtaposed against his commercial detachment

newton's section of the novel exposes us to the callous economics of the slave trade, as well as the psychological maneuvers europeans had to perform to avoid thinking of slaves as humans

letter (118-120; crossing the river)

james' father actively hates his slaves

his hatred formed from irreconcilable difference between his occupation and religion, and takes it out on his slaves

he was shut out from religion when he made the decision to auction slaves in the first place

the decision was made for him, as there is no place for hatred in religion

possible anger that he did not get to make the choice himself

revulsion

stems from the belief that black people are savages - they are repulsed when they see them

white people feel like they need to save them (from savagery, from primativity...)

by doing this, they turn them into slaves - not liberation, though they justify their actions by rationalizing that it is

week eight - class two

pastoral interlude - ingrid pollard

wanting to be british but not wanting to be british are competing identities to her

narration and narrative voice in "somewhere in england"

the narration of 'somewhere in england' is in the first person and the narrator is a young british woman

the form of narration in this section is not centred on the black experience (unlike the first section)

the story is centred on the experiences of the young woman as she navigates the turbulent years of WWII, leading up to her affair with travis, a black general

this type of narrative allows for an 'outside-looking-in' perspective that is better and different from just first person perspective (tunnel vision; limited information)

you have to be able to look at the situation from multiple perspectives and angles

alienation

popular in modernist lit

it's purpose isn't to immerse you in the story, but alienate you from it

this section is composed of brief vignettes depicting her life in a small countryside village, titled with the month and year

month/year chapter titles gesture towards the temporal nature of the novel

impermenance, disordered nature

the vignettes are out of order, breaking up the sense of narrative cohesion and continuity

you don't always recall memories in order

like telling a story, you dont start at the beginning, you start at an appropriate place and pull information from these other stories (vignettes) when necessary

this forces us to think about the contemporary with the past, and integrate historical events into conversation

the politics of british history

the focus the young woman gestures towards the various silences that are produced in the ordering and establishment of history

the personal is frequently lost, but more importantly the stories of the disenfranchised or oppressed (black people, women, disabled people...) are often left out of the master narrative of british history

in WWII when most of the able-bodied men of britain are away at war, their lives are still iconic cause they are off fighting for britain

this book is a form of corrective history - it fills out a forgotten narrative

this disrupts the 'single story' of WWII british history

"many-tongued chorus"

idea from the beginning and end of the novel

idea of the many-tongued chorus is like the greek choruses, as it adheres the entire piece together

totality of the chorus = totality of the black diaspora; totality of culture

group discussion - notes

unity and a multiplicity of connections

no matter who you are or where you're from, you can connect through the black diaspora in some way or another

fundamental of poetry and figurative language - the purpose is to connect words over as many connections as possible

same in the way he writes in a way to connect as much as possible

assemblage in the passage from 235-7

many allusions

MLK, franz fanon, to the rest of the novel, to places in new york

Page 8

week nine - class one

building more stately mansions - aaron douglas

painting - men holding diff tools for diff tasks

children = motherhood? child labour?

men seem to be each moving forward towards our view, towards us - a future?

the past is in the background, still visible

farmer, blacksmith, hammerer - mother and child

signifies the continualness of the past, even in the present

repeating archways - rite of passage by entering

wouldn't be able to experience in the past if black

paul gilroy

british historian/cultural theorist

his book, the black atlantic, is instrumental in the study of black diaspora and cultural studies

double-consciousness

their identity is shaped by how people on the outside look at them

this vision of a double-consciousness is centred on a nation/national phenomenon (esp. USA)

gilroy's european double-consciousness

not just black and USA

he sees it as (at least) two great cultural assemblages that remain locked symbiotically in an antagonistic relationship marked out by the symbolism of colors

the only reason whiteness exists is because blackness exists

the explosion of migrations caused by colonization and atlantic slavery initiated this relationship, and played a fundamental role in the shaping of modernity

rather than seeing these 'cultural assemblages' as complete cultural categories, or even a mixture of these two categories - gilroy calls us to think instead about how no matter what, they are so deeply ingrained in one another's history that it is impossible to think of them as separate entities

eg: slavery and the atlantic

ethnic absolutism

black british is a good example of the failure of an ethnically absolute terms to adequately account for the process of their social and historical formation

there are no black british people

since the UK is surrounded by water, it is inevitable that you'll get black people coming in from everywhere

not just one ethnicity, but many --> clash of culture, no ethnic absolutism

idea of britain being stable, and immigrant coming in and disrupting it all = anti-immigration argument

the black atlantic

getting scared of the black man's power

anti-immigration - enoch powell

strong belief in the nation

the issue with a lot of nationalism is ethnocentrism may come along with it

one group in control

lots of violence between different ethnic and religious groups

fear of a reversal of power, of control

this is the fear of an ethnically diverse nation, and why people (incl. powell) vouch for a more homogenous nation

eg: israel is a jewish state, arabs and palestinians who live there are both jewish and their own group

this is three groups - jews/arab jews/arabs - who all live and belong in israel

though some ethnic laws arent malicious, they still control ethnic populations

there is nothing (technically) stopping any nation from producing laws like these

however, it could also lead to the creation of anti-discrimination laws

powell's speech was delivered to protect the ethnic identity of britain

anti-immigration

this is believed to be the dominant vision of the british nation - stable, peaceful, only challenged/polluted/damaged by black people

however, the british have always been influenced by black people, and we cannot ignore that facet

instead of trying to understand history in a nationalist or ethnically absolute way, gilroy suggests we take the atlantic as one single, complex unit of analysis so that we might produce an 'inclusive' world

the slave ship - chronotope

it acts as the living means by which the points with that atlantic worlds were joined

mobile elements that stood for the shifting spaces in between the fixed places they connected

week nine - class two

dionne brand

canadian-trinidadian artist/poet/author

common themes of her work include: displacement, language, and nationality

her writing is known for challenging stylistic innovations

tidal poetics

term coined by dr. lucy evans

evans contends that both brand's thematics and stylistics are evocative of the sea and it's cycles in the form of tides

the ocean becomes a vast symbol that represents the fluidity of identity in the carribbean

also representative of memory, history, and other forms of ancestral knowledge and information lost to the sea (eg: atlantic slave trade)

this 'submarine' ancestral knowledge is often barely detectable, but it seems to surface as echoes and evocations in literary and artistic representations

we can also imagine these echoes and evocations as 'ancestral knowledge' washing upon the shore of artistic representation

what form does this take in brand's novel?

repetition (with variation)

water and moon symbolism

recurring memories

slave resistance in the neo-slave narrative

slave resistance is an integral part of the history of atlantic slavery

it took many forms and began from the middle passage, and continued on the slave plantation

forms taken incl: suicide (individual and group), violent/militant revolt, infanticide (so their kids don't have to go through what they did), escape, sabotage

as part of the project remembering slavery, the neo-slave narration recalls and relates how slaves resisted the conditions under which they lived and worked

resistance: discussion

slave masters aim to damage psychologically so they can reap the benefits of their slaves bodies

Page 9

week eleven - class one = NO CLASS

week eleven - class two

blackness in film

blackness was introduced to film with horrific film, 'birth of a nation' 1915

silent film depicting the founding of the KKK after the american civil war

in the film, the KKK is depicted as heroic, as they defend white ppl from newly freed black slaves 'taking over' the southern states

these freed men (played by white men in blackface) are depicted as fat and lazy

depictions of black people between the 1910's and 1930's were shaped by minstrelsy

black people were either portrayed by whites in blackface, or their roles were defined by established minstrel stereotypes

depictions through the 1940's-1950's were sparse

there was an explosion of black cinema in the 1960's-1970's

films produced, directed, and acted in by black people, and created a new sub-genre of film for black consumption

these films (termed 'blaxploitation') both challenged and reproduced black stereotypes

there was discourse between what the film market wanted, and black people's resistance to this desire

black panther comics

created in 1966 by stan lee and jack kirby

same time as the american civil rights movement

establishment of the black panther party - a black pride and resistance group

vietnam war and anti-war movements

the character was influenced by the formation of the BPP

over the course of history, people have seen the black panther comics as cultural appropriation or tokenism

the comics cannot be reduced to cultural appropriation and tokenism

the slow decolonization of the black panther is the effort to decanter the white perspective from the construction of the character

if we recognize that representation matters, and that black representation has been a tool in white supremacy, tracing the character over decades illustrates an epic struggle to make a real black character out of a white fantasy of blackness

Page 10

week twelve - class one

afrofuturism and black panther

coined by mark dery, afrofuturism looks at aspirations of belonging and inhabiting modernity

there is speculation about the possible futures of the black diaspora

afrofuturism applies only to science fiction, as it is a way to imagine a sort of utopian future where black people are also accepted

first scenes of black panther

tour and brief history of wakanda

imagined as if colonialism did not happen

counter-narrative of the primitive/poor africa

rather, wakanda is a technologically advanced utopia

wakanda is a direct contravention to the norm, challenging views of black savagery

africa is a tech giant, and much more advanced than the rest of the world

they seem to keep it hidden and secret as well

just like how britain used coal in the industrial revolution, wakanda has vibranium to fuel their technological revolution

during the coronation, the five tribes are adorned in traditional african inspired garb

this scene shows us the co-existence of ancient rite (heart-shaped herb/loss of ceremonial power) with futuristic technological knowledge

the co-existence of this rite is described by a physical contest and supported by a herbal potion challenged the unilineal vision of social evolution, progress, and modernity

this challenges the idea that ancient tradition and advancement cannot go hand in hand

this also (all) changes our one view of a poor and primitive africa

also challenges capitalism - different way of being rich

though wakanda is a private/homogenous nation, each of the five tribes are ethnically different

everyone is black

elite society, hidden from the wold, they all have the same interest as a country

they all share the 'vibranium centre' of wakanda

the museum scene

killmonger is introduced speaking AAVE

he is african-american par excellence and therefore forcing us to juxtapose him against the wakandans

killmonger addresses artifacts being taken unjustly from less powerful countries and profited off of in museums (london)

the artifact isn't from london, but stolen from wakanda

klaus' accent is south african, bringing in another colonial aspect to the villians' characters