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Campus | Bryn Mawr |
Semester | Fall 2021 |
Registration ID | ENGLB216001 |
Course Title | Narrativity and Hip Hop |
Credit | 1.00 |
Department | Latin American, Iberian, and Latinx Studies |
Instructor | Sullivan,Mecca Jamilah |
Times and Days | T 02:10pm-05:00pm
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Room Location | |
Additional Course Info | Class Number: 1322 This course explores narrative and poetic forms and themes in hip-hop culture. Through close, intensive analysis of hip-hop lyrics, as well as audiovisual performance and visual art, we will consider how rappers and hip-hop artists from the late twentieth century onward have used the form to extend, further, and complicate key concerns of literature in general, and African American and African Diaspora literature in particular. We will explore key texts in hip hop from the late 1970s to the current moment. Reading these texts alongside short fiction by writers such as Gayl Jones, Octavia Butler, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Victor LaValle, Kiese Laymon, Ivelisse Rodriguez, Regina Bradley and others, we will consider how themes of socioeconomic mobility, gender and sexuality, queer and feminist critique, and intersectional political engagement animate artists’ narrative and poetic strategies across genre and media. Written work will include regular in-class presentations, short creative assignments, three short papers, and a final project. As a part of the Philly program, the course will take place in Center City, Philadelphia. Along with course readings, we will engage directly with writers, artists, and events that help shape Philadelphia’s vibrant hip-hop and literature scene. For additional information see the program's website https://www.brynmawr.edu/philly-program; This course explores narrative and poetic forms and themes in hip-hop culture in Philadelphia and beyond. Through close, intensive analysis of hip hop lyrics, as well as audiovisual performance and film, we will consider how artists from the late twentieth century onward have used the hip hop to extend, engage, and complicate key concerns of literature in general, and African American and African Diaspora literature in particular. How do literary tropes such as the cautionary tale, the coming-of-age narrative, the quest narrative, the redemption narrative, the protest narrative, and the coming-out story influence hip hop texts? What possibilities do these forms of hip-hop storytelling open for our analysis of cultural and political life in 2021? Focusing on the musical and literary cultures of Philadelphia and drawing links to other contexts, we will take up these questions through an analysis of hip hop texts from the late 1970s to the current moment, including works by Philadelphia rappers The Roots, Meek Mill, and Lady Cannon, as well as Queen Latifah, Kendrick Lamar, Kurtis Blow, Notorious B.I.G., Lxs Krudxs Cubensi, Nitty Scott, KripHop Nation, Bad Bunny, Megan Thee Stallion, KC Ortiz and others. Reading these alongside Philly-focused stories and other narrative works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Alice Walker, Ann Petry, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, Raquel Salas Rivera, and Asali Solomon, we will examine how hip hop intervenes in narratives about nation, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic location, (dis)ability, and intersectional political engagement across space, time, and genre. Through a series of in-class visits from Philadelphia rappers, writers, and activists, as well as excursions exploring the city’s hip hop and literary cultures, we will consider how Philadelphia’s cultural and historical complexity offers fodder for a rich intersectional analysis of hip hop storytelling. Conditions permitting, this course will be taught in Philadelphia at the Friends Center. Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI), Writing Attentive; Haverford: A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts) (A), Humanities (HU) Enrollment Limit 15, with five seats reserved per Tri-Co school, with any extra seats going to Bi-Co students, if Swarthmore seats aren’t filled. Priority in registration for both Bi-Co and Swarthmore seats to seniors, juniors and sophomores. Note: This course will be taught in Philadelphia at the Friends Center and costs for course travel are covered by the Tri-Co Philly Program. For more information, see the program’s website: https://www.brynmawr.edu/philly-program/course-descriptions. |
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