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COMLIT 60AC: All the Feels (Here and Now ((Modern Race (GET OUT (Jordan…
COMLIT 60AC: All the Feels
Here and Now
Modern Race
GET OUT (Jordan Peele 2017): Peele's piece primarily focuses on modern racial relations through the lens of fear. With less of a focus on history and more on current patterns in capital, it presents the way in which white hegemony takes in and recuperates opposition from subaltern groups.
The Affective Politics of Fear (Sara Ahmed): Theoretical companion to Get Out. Discusses how fear often relates to anticipation of being "taken in" by the other. In addition, explores the otherizing nature of fear.
When Things Change
Twilight: Los Angeles (Ana Deavere Smith 2000): Through the lens of the 1992 LA riots, Smith explores the actions of a community that believes it has no recourse in official channels. This rage comes out in riots, and speaks to a growing instability in the current order.
Imperialism and Anger
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mosin Hamid 2007): Hamid's novel centers on a young Pakistani man Changez. Going to school and working in America, he slowly realizes that he is being turned into an imperial tool against his own nation. His anger at this is seen as anti-American radicalism, leading him to be targeted by the US. This text reveals a pattern of Amero-centrism that suppresses other nations.
The Aptness of Anger (Amia Srinivasan 2018): Important piece for understanding Hamid's novel. Srinivasan posits that, regardless of productivity, anger is often just for the disadvantaged. Changez experiences anger that damages himself, yet feels incredibly justified.
Dueling ideas in anger
Structural Silence
Restricting Emotion
Beyond Anger (Martha Naussbam): This piece is actually a case study in attempts at restriction. While purporting to look out for the interests of disadvantaged people, Naussbaum suggests that they should forego anger because it is "counterproductive." In reality it is an attempt to suppress the emotions of those outside the white hegemony.
Restricting Language
To Tame a Wild Tongue (Gloria Anzaldua): Language heavily relates to identity and expression. The way we restrict those languages and enforce English serves to silence specific identities and speakers.
The Unseen
The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison 1970): Shame is the primary affective driver of this novel. It drives Pecola to make herself invisible in any way possible. Throughout the novel, black characters go unseen to the white characters, erased for not fitting the standards of white hegemony.
Shame and it's Sisters (Silvan Tomkins 1995): Discussion of the affective nature of shame and related emotions. Shame functions to force people to retract from themselves and seek self-invisibility.
The Weight of History
Living Among Ghosts
The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston 1976): Kingston's memoir focuses on the concept of racial melancholia. Rather than resulting from the weight of cultural memory, Kingston's melancholia derives from being disconnected from her own cultural memory. She thus views the other chinese people around her as ghosts, similar to the characters in the stories she tells herself about her heritage in order to find belonging.
Mourning and Melancholia (Freud): Theoretical text outlining the differences between mourning and melancholia. Melancholia is mourning without finality, in a pathological form. This relates to the Woman Warrior as Kingston experiences this melancholia as she has not lost her history but cannot access it.
A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia (David Eng and Shinhee Han): Expands on the ideas of the Freud text, but more specific to racial issues, particularly immigration and assimilation. This is the direct theoretical complement to The Woman Warrior.
An Inheritance of Anger
Notes of a Native Son (James Baldwin): Essay by James Baldwin on the anger he felt throughout his life. He feels he inherited it from or was taught it by his father. While recognizing its use, he still feels he must escape it to some degree.
Colonial Fuku
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz 2007): The primary narrative driver in this novel is the generational curse "fuku" which began with the first contact between the people of the Antilles and western conquerors. From an analytical standpoint, the fuku can be seen as less supernatural, and more as the long term effects of colonization on colonized people.
Learning Stereotypes
Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination (Bell Hooks): Essay on the stereotypes and expectations black Americans have about their white counterparts. These ideas get passed down from generation to generation as an aid to survival in white hegemony.
Lights, Camera, Praxis
Learning to Survive
A Litany For Survival (Audre Lorde): Poem by Audre Lorde about the importance of continuing to survive. If you are a member of an oppressed group, your continued existence is a form of rebellion.
Finding Utopia
Cruising Utopia/Can Hope be Disappointed? (Jose Munoz/Ernst Bloch): Jose Munoz uses Bloch's work as a starting point for discussing the idea of queer Utopianism. Finding a way to use queer relationality as a source of hope and optimism to drive progress.
Fury on a Gran Scale
Gran Fury Selected Works: The works of Gran Fury are an incredible example of emotional praxis. Their works use heavily emotional art to evoke a powerful response in their audience. This is a great example of the usefulness of anger.
Moving Politics (Deborah Gould): More of a history of ACT UP, Gran Fury, and the theory behind them. Discusses the importance of turning grief into anger in order to get things done.
