The New Black Aesthetics

What cultural, theoretical and political trends inform black literary production at the end of the twentieth century, or in the era to come after the civil rights movement, the black cultural nationalist movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, and integration? In this seminar, we will trace a critical genealogy, considering the political and institutional demands of formalizing the discipline of black literary studies in the academy, the movement from “criticism” to “theory,” and the manner in which interdisciplinary approaches have transformed methods for reading black literature and culture. A consistent concern will be the stakes and criteria for producing, evaluating, and critiquing various forms of black literary aesthetics; we will trace the approaches of various scholars and artists to define an aesthetics, from Larry Neal, to Barbara Smith, to Trey Ellis. Many of the critical and literary texts to be considered make self-conscious efforts to define the intellectual and political stakes for black cultural production, the meaning of black identity, and the conditions of community. As we engage this literature, we will consider how it addresses both past and present circumstances, and whether we can discern a “new” black aesthetics.