| According to Marxian theory, classes and groups are coerced into reproducing the relations of production that have formed those groups. If the slave mother is a “death-bound-subject,” how does she give birth to and nurture children who are always-already designated as dead subjects by the master’s society? This course will explore how some modern black feminist novels tackle this dilemma or contradiction. We will explore this problem in different paradigms: neo-slave narrative (Beloved), the novel of “passing” (Quicksand and Passing), the Jim Crow reproduction of slavery (Third Life of Grange Copeland), and the attempts to come to terms with the traumas of the past (Corregidora) and to re-imagine the past (Kindred). In addition to these novels, we will examine theoretical and historical material regarding the “death-bound-subject,” the politics of reproduction (biological, psychological, and cultural), the predicament of slave mothers, etc. The examination of the primary texts will draw heavily on the intersection of Marxian, phenomenological, and psychoanalytic theoretical material regarding the political economy of birth and death.
Texts:
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Nella Larsen: Quicksand and Passing
Alice Walker: The Third Life of Grange Copeland
Gayl Jones: Corregidora
Octavia Butler: Kindred
+ course reader
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