AML 2600 Fall 2020 Gaines

Do you know blackness when you see it?

Does it have a sound?

Can blackness be learned?

Can it be taught?

Or is it simply the “truth” of biology?

This course serves as an introduction to African American literature refusing to take its own blackness for granted. The texts we will read throughout the semester revolve around the theme of racial passing. Looking at the African American literary canon through this lens allows us to trouble what we think we know about authenticity and black identity.

In what way is identity shaped by who can and can’t pass?