Black Existentialism – revised syllabus

August 30, 2019 John Drabinski

Black Existentialism – revised syllabus

Here is my revised syllabus for a course I’ve taught a bunch of times: Black Existentialism. This revision includes more work with cinema, as well as pushing some of the existential themes into conversation with afro-postmodern sensibilities.

The generic course description:

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, existentialism dominated the European philosophical and literary scene. Prominent theorists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty put the experience of history, alienation, and the body at the center of philosophical and literary life. It should be no surprise, then, that existentialism appealed to so many Afro-Caribbean and African-American thinkers of the same period and after. This course examines the critical transformation of European existentialist ideas through close readings of black existentialists Aime Césaire, Frantz Fanon, George Lamming, and Wilson Harris, paired with key essays from Sartre, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty. We will engage black existentialism not just as a series of claims, but also as a method, which allows us to read works by African-American writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison in an existentialist frame. Last, we will consider the matter of how and why existentialism continues to function so centrally in contemporary Africana philosophy.

Comment (1)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *