Course Title Black Feminism

Course Code ENG 529

Course Type Elective Literature

Level Undergraduate

Year / Semester 3rd and 4th year

Teacher’s Name Evi Haggipavlu

ECTS 7.5 Lectures / week 2 Laboratories / week N/A This course focuses on Black Feminist thought and examines the meaning(s) of Black Course Purpose and Feminism, its main tenets, as well as its history. Our objective will be to thoughtfully engage Objectives with the works of scholars, writers, activists and artists whose collective wisdom, passion, insightful analyses, sheer talent and committed work gave rise to a movement with a global reach that has radically changed the ways in which we understand Feminist History, Ethics, Politics, Theory, Criticism and Activism. Our ultimate aim will be to hear the many voices of Black Feminism in the 20th century, and allow their transformative energy to change us.

Learning Outcomes • Thoughtfully engage with a wide range of works by Black Feminist scholars, activists, artists and writers. • Explore the meaning(s), history, and main tenets of Black Feminism Thought. • Explore the significance of Womanism and Black Feminism as Critical Frameworks through which to examine Literature, Theory and the Arts. • Explore the many ways through which Black Feminist Thought radically changes ossified ways of thinking about Feminist Ethics, Politics, Theory, Criticism, Activism and History.

Prerequisites N/A Required N/A

Course Content • Introduction: 1831-1957 • 1960’s-1980’s • Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God • Alice Walker’s Womanist Prose • Literary Theory and Criticism • Music and Poetry • Reproductive Rights/Violence Against Women/The History and Politics of Sexuality

Teaching Methodology Each of the class meetings will be comprised of a lecture and discussion of the week’s topic, readings and films. Presentations on selected essays will allow students to combine their critical and creative skills. Bibliography Bibliography Required Reading:

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly, editor. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: The New Press New York, 1995. Print.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. London: Virago, 2008. Print. Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: The Women’s Press Ltd., 1984. Print.

Recommended Reading:

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 1991. Print.

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race and Class. New York: First Vintage Books Edition, 1983. Print.

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. New York: First Vintage Books Edition, 1999. Print.

hooks, bell. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.

hooks, bell. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. 2nd ed. London: Pluto Press, 2000. Print.

Hull, Akasha (Gloria T.), Patricia Bell-Scott & Barbara Smith, editors. All the Women are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of us are Brave: Black Women’s Studies. 2nd ed. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1982. Print.

James, Joy and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting. The Black Feminist Reader. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. Print.

Jones, Alethia and Virginia Eubanks, editors with Barbara Smith. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014. Print.

Lorde, Audre. Zami, Sister Outsider, Undersong. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993. Print.

Moraga, Cherrie & Gloria Anzaldua, editors. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. 4th ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. Print.

Philips, Layli. The Womanist Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Smith, Barbara, editor. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. 1984. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Print.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. London: Phoenix, 2004. Print.

Assessment Presentations, Response Papers, Final Paper

Language English