FRH 419 BLACKNESS IN AFRICAN POETRY

A descendant of an ancestral oral tradition, poetry in 20th- and 21st-Century Africa is a privileged mode of expression for myriad Black identities and a vector for major ideological, political, and social movements across the continent. In this course, we will explore and compare colonial and postcolonial representations of black identities in Arabic, English, and French African poetry. Through the works of Muhammad al-Fītūrī (1936-2015), Wole Soyinka (b. 1934), and Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001), to name a few, students will engage in an in-depth analysis of this changemaking poetry and shed light on the linguistic, cultural, and literary specificities underlying each representation of black identities. An English translation will be available alongside all readings in Arabic and French.