Race, Religion, and Literature of the African Diaspora

This course explores the place of religion in shaping modern literature and aesthetics of the African Diaspora. With the model of Paul Gilroy's Black Atlantic as a geographical anchoring point, we will seek to understand how writers (and artists) on both sides of the hemisphere have negotiated different conceptualizations of the African diaspora and different forms of religion (Christianity and Islam, but also indigenous spiritual traditions, such as Odinani) in their aesthetics.