When we consider eco-feminism – ecology and feminism – we are delving into what Susan Archer Mann defines as “a diverse range of women’s efforts to save the earth” as well as “transformations in feminist thought that have resulted in new conceptualizations of the relationship between the domination of women and the domination of nature” (DOING FEMINIST THEORY, 413). I would argue that this theoretical construct is only “new” when we consider it from a white, Euro-American historical perspective. This course will consider the literature that both expresses and analyzes the intersection of ecology and feminism. We will start with Greta Gaard's Critical Ecofeminism to help us create our theoretical lens. Then, we will read novels and works of creative non-fiction that put critical eco-feminist theory into practice. Authors may include Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Paula Gunn Allen, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Amy Leach, Velma Wallis, and Linda Hogan. This course must be one of the first five courses taken in the MA in English program. Satisfies the Identity & Power requirement. Prerequisite: GENG 513
Almost everyone has heard of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, but far fewer are familiar with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, arguably the most important and influential Black artistic movement of the twentieth century. Allied with the Black Power Movement, BAM writers and theorists articulated a uniquely Black aesthetic, rooted in vernacular Black culture, and inextricably bound to a Black radical politics of liberation. Primarily focused on poetry and drama, BAM artists rejected western aesthetics and forms, eschewing artistic beauty and the comfort of the audience for direct attacks on whiteness, demands for political power, and professions of racial pride and Black nationalist strength. Most importantly, the artists and theorists of the Black Arts Movement created art specifically for Black people intended to educate, inspire, build solidarity, and provoke political and cultural revolution. For them, their aesthetics and their politics were the same, and their art was revolutionary action. This course will examine the art and theory of the movement with an eye toward its nearly sixty-year legacy. The Black Arts Movement has had an outsized influence on Black art and culture that followed it: from Hip Hop to Black literature and publishing to Black Studies – and even the use of the word “Black” to refer to a people. This course satisfies the Identity & Power requirement. Prerequisite: GENG 513 or permission of the instructor.