The Early Black Atlantic

An interdisciplinary study of the first diasporic Africans to write in English, from the onset of European trade on the West African coast to the Age of Revolutions. This course will consider issues such as the emergence of racial identity, creolization, religion, print culture, racial capitalism, resistance, and the reshaping of gender and sexuality in the crucible of the Atlantic world economy. Genres will include sermons, fiction, editorials, folklore, poetry, autobiography, and polemics.