WMST428K

In this course we will examine an array of performance texts in an effort to understand how Blackness represented in U.S. popular culture. The course will aim to deconstruct stereotypes of Blackness in the U.S and African diaspora while focusing specifically on it relations to and intersections with gender and sexuality. We will investigate how Black people are portrayed and represented in history, literature, and popular culture and challenge the notion of essential or authentic Blackness. Throughout the course, we will engage various theories of performance and identity and explore race, gender and sexuality as constructed categories.