A Sound Theory of Blackness: African American Literature and Music in High Fidelity

An exploration of sonic theory and the African American literary tradition from the nineteenth century through the millennium with special emphasis on major debates in jazz studies and a critical (re)examination of blues ideologies, as well as the politics and poetics of spirituals, R&B and soul, funk, Afrofuturism, punk, pop, and hip-hop. The course places the work of a range of cultural theorists (Douglass, Du Bois, Adorno, Hurston, Ellison, Murray, Baraka, Mackey, Carby, Spillers, O’Meally, Griffin, Moten, Edwards, Radano, Nancy, Szendy, Perry, Weheliye, etc.) in conversation with key texts and epochs in black letters.

Taught by Daphne Brooks Spring 2016