Prof. Ratcliff
My blogs
- Literature of the Black Atlantic
- Literature of the Hip-Hop Generation
- Literature of the African Diaspora
| Industry | Education |
|---|---|
| Location | Stonehill College, Massachusetts, United States |
| Introduction | EN397: In this course we will conduct comparative studies of African and Afro-Diasporan literatures from Africa, North America, Europe, the West Indies and Latin America, and the relationship of those works to local, transnational, and postcolonial struggles for self-determination, equality, and human rights. The analysis and critique of literature from the “Black Atlantic” in the form of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry provide ideal locations to interrogate the historical and contemporary formations of African and Diasporan identities and cultures, while also illustrating the intersectionality of race, gender, class, sexuality, nationalism, and immigration and their effects on contested Black solidarity. Moreover, by employing an interdisciplinary approach to literary studies, including cultural, musical, filmic and historical methods of inquiry, we will gain a better understanding of the multifaceted issues facing Afro-descendents. |
| Favorite Books | Edwidge Danticat: The Farming of Bones (1999), C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins (1937), Charles Johnson: Middle Passage (1990), Gerald Moore ed.: The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry: Fifth Edition (2007), Loida Maritza Perez: Geographies of Home (1998), Christel Temple: Literary Pan-Africanism (2005), Yvonne Vera ed.: Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women's Writing (1999) |