CRN |
93366 |
Distribution |
C |
Course
No. |
AADS / HIST 148 |
||
Title |
African
Encounters I: Culture, History, and Politics in Africa |
||
Professor |
Jesse Shipley |
||
Schedule |
Tu Th 11:30 am – 12:50 pm OLIN 201 |
Cross-listed: Anthropology, CCSRE, HR
This is the first half of a divisible, two-course sequence introducing a global
socio-historical framework within which to consider both Africa and the African
Diaspora. By considering Africa and its people, not as fixed entities, but
rather as historical actors through which dynamic political, economic, and
cultural encounters have taken place, this two semester series attempts to
destabilize ideas of Africa--as either timeless, primitive, and exotic or
tragic, "fallen," and degraded--that have dominated Western
understandings of the continent. We will ask, How have ideas of "primitive" and "modern"
been produced in the colonization and anthropological study of Africa itself?
We will examine particular African cultures within the context of global
political economic structures of inequality. The course will address West
Africa and Southern Africa and pursue numerous types of encounters:
pre-colonial African political empires, the impact of the Atlantic slave trade,
the role of Islam, British colonial contact, trade and movements between South
Asia and Africa. The main focus
however, will be on the 20th century colonial and postcolonial manifestations
of these deeply embedded historical legacies in terms of the formation of
racial, national, Pan-African, class, and ethnic identifications. We will use
historical accounts, ethnographic works, novels, and plays to offer an
interdisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary African politics and
culture. (The second half of the course in Spring 2004 will focus more on the
African Diaspora, transnational African communities, and the movements of
ideas, symbols, and practices between the African continent and African peoples
around the globe. In this way we will examine labor, migration, global
political economy, mass media, religion, and popular culture as crucial
circuits within which we can understand Africa and its Diasporas.)
CRN |
93275 |
Distribution |
A/C |
Course
No. |
AADS / ANTH 259 |
||
Title |
Ethnographic
Film and Visual Anthropology in Africa: Theory and Practice |
||
Professor |
Jesse Shipley |
||
Schedule |
Tu Th 4:30 pm – 5:50 pm OLIN
203 |
This course addresses the visual aspects of culture
and cultural production with a particular focus on postcolonial Africa. How are the arts and the visual aspects of
society made meaningful in and for contemporary Africa? We will look at how Africa has been represented
through film and the display of African peoples and “primitive” art for Western
audiences, showing the ways in which African enters global circuits of
representation and mass media through its visual representation. We will examine the artistic and visual
aspects of culture as they are made socially meaningful both within African
cultural contexts as well as when they are displayed for art worlds and cinema
audiences outside of the continent.
Through these examinations we will introduce some of the basic concerns
and paradigms of anthropology, in particular ideas of racial and cultural
difference. This class is for those
interested in historical/anthropological examinations of the visual as well as
students producing film/videos, installations, and performance pieces
especially in relation to the politics of representation. In terms of film production we will examine
the political and social messages embedded within aesthetic decisions made by
artists from choosing themes, to modes of narration, to editing decisions. For those interested in actually making
films/videos previous experience is required.
Courses
cross-listed with AADS:
ANTH
208C Africa and British Anthropology
ANTH
259 Ethnographic Film and Visual
Anthropology in Africa: Theory and Practice
LIT
2371 20th Century
African-American Literature
LIT
238 Modern African Fiction
LIT
3118 Francophone African
Literature
MUS
211 Jazz in Literature I
MUS
332 Jazz: The Freedom Principle II
MUS
344 Music & Culture of the
African Diaspora I
PS
232 Social Movements/Political
Change in US