As Franz Fanon argued, black people are driven more by emotion than by reason because the rationality (usually based on controlling ideas and ideologies) of the spaces they occupy are often what suppress them. In the United States in particular, African Americans must create their own unique agencies via their emotional reactions toward the contexts in which they live because these emotional (or non-reasoned) responses act in opposition to the codes and rules of the external world which actively persecute and suppress them. Since it is the dominant “white rationality” that controls and subjugates black people, only through noncognitive feelings such as anger, fear, pain, hope, willfulness, anxiety, and shame can black people exercise some modicum of agency. Fanon concluded that “emotion is completely Negro as reason is to Greek,” meaning that black culture, experience, and heritage are informed through feeling and one possible way for black people to form their independent subjectivities is through emotions. This seminar aims to apply Affect theory to 20th century African American literature and film. The seminar will thoroughly introduce Affect theory and how it can be read in African American literature and film. The course will delve into the formation and functions of specific emotions (such as fear, anxiety, shame, hope, and happiness) and then relate them to three African American novels (Richard Wright’s Native Son, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys) and three African American films (Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and Dee Rees’s Mudbound).

TThis seminar aims to apply Affect theory to 20th century African American literature and film. The seminar will thoroughly introduce Affect theory and how it can be read in African American literature and film. The course will delve into the formation and functions of specific emotions (such as fear, anxiety, shame, hope, and happiness) and then relate them to three African American novels (Richard Wright’s Native Son, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys) and three African American films (Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and Dee Rees’s Mudbound). Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students should have achieved the following objectives: 1. Gain an understanding of how emotion and affect can be read in African American literature and film. 2. Gain a strong working knowledge of Affect theory and be able to apply it to various texts. 3. Students will give evidence of having mastered the theoretical and critical concepts that they choose to apply in their research projects, by demonstrating the appropriate application of such concepts and practices in their critical analysis and interpretation of African American literature and Affect theory. They will demonstrate this evidence in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Vintage, 2016.
Whitehead, Colson. The Nickel Boys. Fleet, 2019.
Do the Right Thing. Directed by Spike Lee, Universal Pictures,1989.
Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele, Universal Pictures, 2017.
Mudbound. Directed by Dee Rees, Netflix, 2017