Aufbauseminar Abductees Escapees and Returnees Pan African Migration Narratives Di 14:30

Examining texts that deal with the multiple forced and voluntary migrations that have shaped the African American experience, this course will introduce you to the narratives of various abductees, escapees, and returnees. Even though each text to be read in this course is, of course, unique in its representation of the migratory experience and the changes that result from this experience, there are central questions and concerns which connect the texts across literary periods and genre boundaries. Each text, in its own way, is concerned with a number of key questions: What is ‘home’? How can traumatic experiences be articulated, dealt with and possibly be overcome? How can one shape both one’s individual identity and one’s national identity? Studying some of the earliest texts about the African Diaspora, we will analyze how 18th-century authors like Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley used their experiences of abduction by slave traders and their memories of the Middle Passage to promote anti-slavery sentiments in America and Europe. In a second step, we will explore different artistic representations of the Great Migration, the mass exodus of African-Americans from the poor, rural, Jim-Crow-ridden South to the industrialized, urban North at the beginning of the 20th century, which resulted in major demographic, social and political changes throughout America. We will juxtapose excerpts from one of Toni Morrison’s novels with Jacob Lawrence series of paintings The Great Migration: An American Story (1940-41) in order to explore what drives characters (and people) to leave behind everything and everyone they know for a future that is anything but certain. Will these characters succeed in shedding their old identities as servants, nannies or cotton pickers in an attempt become new, more successful and happier versions of their ‘old’ selves? The desire for a better life and a ‘new’ self connects the narratives dealing with the impact of the Great Migration with narratives about 20th century immigration the U.S. from the Caribbean and (West-)Africa. In these more recent narratives (e.g. by Jamaica Kincaid and others) the possibility of living ‘transnational’ and ‘transcultural’ lives poses new challenges both on the the level of the individual and on the level of the state. The question of the (im)possibility of a ‘true’ return to one’s home (country) is also examined in these narratives. While our major interests will lie with the texts themselves, we will draw on concepts and ideas from a variety of fields, such as African-American literary criticism, feminist criticism, Diaspora theory and postcolonial theory, to complement our readings. This course is open to all students wishing to explore Pan-African migration narratives. You are expected to attend regularly, read attentively and participate actively (!). Most texts and materials will be made available in a Semesterapparat by the beginning of the semester. I will let you know which books to buy on the first day of class. Students not present on the first day of class will be withdrawn from the list of enrolled students, unless they have made prior arrangements with me. Students of BK AUA (i.e. students who major in English and American Studies) must have passed the Intermediate Module Literaturwissenschaft in order to take an exam in this course at the end of the semester. Anglistik u. Amerikanistik (BA, PO 2013) Erg.fach Universität Düsseldorf SoSe 2016 Rond Kathrin