Haverford College

Department of History

History 343b: Topics in African American Intellectual History

Black Paris: Art and Ideology in a Modern[ist] Diaspora, 1925-1975

This course is a reading and discussion seminar, incorporating a significant writing component. Considering expatriation as a type of "performance," we will consider the lives and work of [selected] African American, Caribbean, and African writers in Paris, in their appropriate cultural contexts--local and global.

Information

Time & Place: Tuesday 1:30 pm-4:00 pm, Link 205 or 1 College Lane, Apt. 1.
Office Hours: 1 College Lane Apt. 1, by appointment.
Phone/Email: [610] 649-7841; pjeffers@haverford.edu

Course Requirements and Grading Protocol

1) Close reading of assigned texts and active participation in class discussions: 25% of grade.

2) Short [5-6 pp.] conceptual-thematic essay [“Mapping the Issues, Sharpening the Questions"] and a "working" bibliography for your seminar paper, due March 25th: 20% of grade.

3) Oral reports on research in progress: 5% of grade.

4) Seminar paper [15-18 pp.] on a topic to be negotiated, due May 16th: 50% of grade.

Texts

James Baldwin, Collected Essays [New York: The Library of America, 1998]

Aime Cesaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native land (Cahier d'un retour au pays natal [1939]), translated and edited by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith, with an introduction by Andre Breton [Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001]

Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism [Presence Africaine, 1955], translated by Joan Pinkham; with a new introduction by Robin D.G. Kelley, "A Poetics of Anticolonialism" [New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000]

*W.E.B. Du Bois, The Conservation of Races [Washington: American Negro Academy, Occasional Papers, No. 2; 1897]*

*Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Black Paris: The African Writers’ Landscape [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998]*

*Richard Wright, White Man Listen [New York: Doubleday, 1957]*

Calendar of Meetings

*Xeroxed Materials [above and below]* will be handed out in class.

#Materials# [below] are on Reserve at Magill Library, under History 343b.

January 21. Opening Remarks: Introducing Our Subject[s]

VIDEO: "Africa to America to Paris: The Migration of Black Writers;" a film by Jacques Goldstein and Blaise N'Djehoya [Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1998]

January 28. Perspectives on Race, Culture, Identity, and Difference--Then and Now

*Georg W. F. Hegel, “Introduction,” The Philosophy of History [1822], trans. by J. Sibree [1991], pp. 91, 93-99.*

*W.E.B. Du Bois, The Conservation of Races [Washington: American Negro Academy, Occasional Papers, No. 2; 1897]*

*Michael Omi and Howard Winant, "Racial Formations," in Paul S. Rothenberg, ed., Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, fifth edition [New York: Worth Publishers, 2001], pp. 11-20.*

February 4. The Harlem Renaissance Abroad, 1925-1935: [Re]Valuing Race.

*Catherine Bernard, "Confluence: Harlem Renaissance, Modernism and Negritude. Paris in the 1920s - 1930s," in Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-1965, edited by Audreen Buffalo [New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1996], pp. 21-27.*

*Alain Locke, "The New Negro," in The New Negro [New York, 1925], pp. 3-16.*

*Petrine Archer-Shaw, Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s [New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000], Introduction, chs. 4-5, and Conclusion.*

Historical Background [optional but *highly* recommended]:

#Tyler Stovall, Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996], chs. 1-2.#

February 11. Primitivism and Ethnography, 1900-1940: "Culture Wars" and Modernist Theory

*Bennetta Jules-Rosette, “An Uneasy Collaboration: The Dialogue between French Anthropology and Black Paris,” in Black Paris: The African Writers’ Landscape [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998], pp. 19-33.*

*Christopher L. Miller, "Introduction" and "Conclusion," in Theories of Africans: Francophone Literature and Anthropology in Africa [1990], pp, 1-29, 295-297.*

Cultural Background [Clifford is optional but *highly* recommended; Blake is optional]:

#James Clifford, "On Ethnographic Surrealism," in The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art [Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1988], pp. 117-151.#

#Jody Blake, Le Tumulte Noir: Modernist Art and Popular Entertainment in Jazz-Age Paris, 1900-1930 [University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999], Introduction, chs. 3, 5, and Postscript.#

February 18. The Politics of Culture, 1945-1960: Representing Negritude

*Jean-Paul Sartre, Black Orpheus (“Orphee Noir,” preface to Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de langue francaise, edited by L.S. Senghor [Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948]), trans. S.W. Allen [Paris: Presence Africaine, 1976]*

*Manthia Diawara, "Situation I. Sartre and African Modernism," in In Search of Africa [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998], pp. 1-11.*

*Leopold Sedar Senghor, "The Teaching of Leo Frobenius" [1973], in Denis Hollier and Jeffrey Mehlman, eds., Literary Debate: Text and Contexts [New York: New Press, 1999], pp. 431-436.*

Ideological-Historical Background [required]:

*Abiola Irele, “What is Negritude?” in The African Experience in Literature and Ideology [1981; reprinted Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990], pp. 67-88.*

February 25. Problematizing the Politics of Culture, 1945-1960: Rereading Aime Cesaire

Aime Cesaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Cahier d’un retour au pays natal [1939]), translated and edited by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith, with an introduction by Andre Breton [Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001]

Perform a close-reading of this classic "poem," mapping its structure and imagery, and explore how Cesaire--using the term "negritude" in print for the first time--exploits the theme of exile to construct a [diasporic] Caribbean identity.

Cultural Background [required]:

#James Clifford, "A Politics of Neologism: Aime Cesaire," in The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art [Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1988], pp. 175-181.#

March 4. Launching the Presence Africaine "Project:" Culture, Colonialism, and Negritude

First International Conference of Negro Writers and Artists, September 19-22, 1956, Paris--in *Presence Africaine, Special Issue: The First International Conference of Negro Writers and Artists [new bimonthly series: Nos. 8-10, June-November 1956]:*

Alioune Diop, "Opening Address," pp. 9-18.

Leopold Sedar Senghor, "The Spirit of Civilisation or the Laws of African Negro Culture," pp. 51-64.

Richard Wright, “Discussion, 19 September,” pp. 66-68.

Aime Cesaire, "Culture and Colonisation," pp. 193-207.

Ideological-Historical Background [required]:

*Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Black Paris: The African Writers’ Landscape [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998], pp. 1-8, 33-42, 49-64.*

March 18. Essaying [Trans-Atlantic] Identity, I: A New Black Voice at Home and Abroad

James Baldwin, “Many Thousands Gone,” “Notes of a Native Son,” “Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown,” and “A Question of Identity,” in Notes of a Native Son [Boston, 1955]; reprinted in Collected Essays [New York: The Library of America, 1998], pp. 19-34, 63-84, 85-90, 91-100.

Historical and Biographical Background [optional]:

James Baldwin, “Princes and Powers,” Encounter [January, 1957]. His report on the First International Congress of Negro Writers and Artists, reprinted in Collected Essays [New York: The Library of America, 1998], pp. 143-169.

#Tyler Stovall, Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996], ch. 5.#

#David A. Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography [New York: Knopf, 1994]; relevant chapters#

March 25. Cultural History's Janus-Face: Looking Backward, Looking Forward

A conceptual-thematic essay ["Mapping the Issues, Sharpening the Questions"] based on class readings and a "working" bibliography for your proposed seminar paper are both due in class.

To better contextualize your essay, consult the hand-out *Black Paris: Working Outline*

April 1. The Culture of Politics, 1955-1960: Critiquing Romantic Racialism [Optic 1]

*Richard Wright, “Tradition and Industrialization,” White Man Listen [New York: Doubleday, 1957], pp. 15-18, 74-104.*

*Manthia Diawara, "Situation II. Richard Wright and Modern Africa," in In Search of Africa [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998], pp. 59-76.*

Biographical Background [optional]:

Kenneth Kinnamon and Michel Fabre, Conversations with Richard Wright [Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1993]

#Hazel Rowley, Richard Wright: The Life and Times [New York: Henry Holt, 2001]#

April 8. The Culture of Politics, 1955-1965: Critiquing Romantic Racialism [Optic 2]

*Jean Paul Sartre, “Preface,” in Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth [Paris, 1961; 1963; New York: Grove Press, 1968], pp. 7-31.*

*Frantz Fanon, "On National Culture," in The Wretched of the Earth [Paris, 1961; 1963; New York: Grove Press, 1968], pp. 206-248.*

Ideological-Historical Background [required]:

*Bennetta Jules-Rosette, “Antithetical Africa: The Conferences and Festivals of Presence Africaine, 1956-73,” in Black Paris: The African Writers’ Landscape [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998], pp. 64-78, 87-92.*

April 15. The Culture of Politics, 1955-1975: Autobiography as Witness

#VIDEO: Aime Cesaire, Une Voix pour l'Histoire [three videorecordings; directed by Euzhan Palcy; Martinique: California Newsreel, 1994]. Part 2: Au rendez-vous de la conquete, 56 min.#

Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism [Presence Africaine, 1955], translated by Joan Pinkham; with new introduction by Robin D.G. Kelley, "A Poetics of Anticolonialism" [New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000]

Ideological-Historical Background [required]:

*Eileen Julien, “Terrains de Rencontre: Cesaire, Fanon, and Wright on Culture and Decolonization,” Yale French Studies: “The French Fifties,” Number 98 [2000]: 149-166.*

April 22. Essaying [Trans-Atlantic] Identity, II: Slaying the Father [Wright] and Acting His Part [Black Spokesman]

James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name [New York, 1961], chs. 1, 5-7, 12; reprinted in Collected Essays [New York: The Library of America, 1998], pp. 137-142, 187-214, 247-268.

Biographical Background [optional]:

#James Campbell, Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin [New York: Viking, 1991], relevant chapters#

April 29. Exile's Return: Race, Culture, and American Democracy

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time [New York, 1963]; reprinted in Collected Essays [New York: The Library of America, 1998], pp. 291-347.

#VIDEO: James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket [videorecording]; American Masters presentation of a Karen Thorsen film; San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1990.#

Seminar Papers due May 16, 2003 by 12 noon [for graduating seniors: May 10, 2003 by 5:00pm]

Concluding Thoughts [or Farewell to Essentialisms]:

Du Bois’ turn-of-the-century suggestion--reread as suggesting a “romantic” [essentialist] resistance to [ironic] discourses of ethnic hybridity, cultural creolization, and ideological ambivalence, and to the acknowledgement of unseemly complicities with non-black or non-subaltern "Others" such discourses might force--is as applicable now as it was then: “The would-be black savant was confronted by the paradox that the knowledge his people needed was a twice-told tale to his [post-modernist] white neighbors, while the knowledge which would teach the white world was Greek to his own flesh and blood.” Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” in The Souls of Black Folk [1903], ch. 1.

Which is to say that too many black Americans--for reasons which deserve closer examination [among them: the need to be "down" on race for local audiences, an obdurate cultural parochialism, and a defensive suspicion of "white" literacy]--are poor "readers" of themselves and the world in their staged conversations with others.

Consider in this connection a point on the learning curve of Amiri Baraka in The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones [1984; Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1997], a politically-contextualized "identity discourse" by a central figure in the Black Arts Movement:

“The arrival uptown, Harlem, can only be summed up by the feelings jumping out of Cesaire’s Return to My Native Land[,] of Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth or Cabral’s Return to the Source. The middle-class native intellectual, having outintegrated the most integrated, now plunges headlong back into what he perceives as the blackest, native-est... [milieu, becoming] a fanatical [racial] patriot!” [Ibid., p. 295.]

More generally, see Amiri Baraka, The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones [1984; Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1997], "Introduction" [1996] and chapters 1-3, and 7-11.

For a closer examination of African American resistance to the de-essentializing of 'race' discourse, see Lola Young, "Hybridity's Discontents: Rereading Science and 'Race,'" in Hybridity and Its Discontents: Politics, Science, Culture, ed. By Avtar Brah and Annie E. Coombes [London and New York: Routledge, 2000], pp. 154-170.

For counterpoint--as an example of “discursive fragmentation”--see VIDEO: “Looking for Langston [Hughes]” [45 minute; directed by Isaac Julien, 1988]; and read Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "The Black Man's Burden," in Black Popular Culture. A project by Michele Wallace, edited by Gina Dent [Seattle: Bay Press, 1992], pp. 75-83; and Isaac Julien, “Black Is, Black Ain’t: Notes on De-Essentializing Black Identities,” in Black Popular Culture [1992], pp. 255-263.

Going to school to the modern world’s multiple “post-colonial” others, African Americans can "recuperate" race [in ways which are *not* intellectually debilitating and *may* be politically productive] by decentering and problematizing their readings of blackness; which is to say--ironically [romantic racialism/racial essentialism being the other side of a spurious “universalism”]--by finally decolonizing their identity discourses.