This course examines the history of African American activism in the United States from the 1830s to the 1990s through an interdisciplinary approach that brings together literature, political history, and cultural studies.
Rather than considering Black radicalism as an isolated phenomenon, the course traces the moments when African American intellectuals, writers, and movements forged alliances with other sectors of U.S. society—including abolitionists, socialists, trade unionists, feminists, and civil rights movements—examining the conditions that made these alliances possible, their internal tensions, and the reasons for their transformations.
The course is organized as a research seminar. The course instructor introduces the theoretical and methodological framework for the different units and coordinates a series of guest lectures by national and international specialists, focusing on specific moments in the cultural and political history of the United States. The lectures combine the analysis of literary, autobiographical, theoretical, and historiographical texts with critical discussion of contemporary scholarship.
The course concludes with a theoretical reflection on the structural relationship between Black liberation, feminism, and class struggle through the thought of C.L.R. James and Angela Davis.
Rather than considering Black radicalism as an isolated phenomenon, the course traces the moments when African American intellectuals, writers, and movements forged alliances with other sectors of U.S. society—including abolitionists, socialists, trade unionists, feminists, and civil rights movements—examining the conditions that made these alliances possible, their internal tensions, and the reasons for their transformations.
The course is organized as a research seminar. The course instructor introduces the theoretical and methodological framework for the different units and coordinates a series of guest lectures by national and international specialists, focusing on specific moments in the cultural and political history of the United States. The lectures combine the analysis of literary, autobiographical, theoretical, and historiographical texts with critical discussion of contemporary scholarship.
The course concludes with a theoretical reflection on the structural relationship between Black liberation, feminism, and class struggle through the thought of C.L.R. James and Angela Davis.
- Enseignant: Cristina Iuli