HIST 279 - Africa in the Western Imagination

FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
Credits: 3

From benefit concerts to AIDS charities to study abroad literature, Africa is everywhere. And yet it is frequently explained only in absence or in suffering. Rather than being a place that is defined by what it is, often Africa is viewed by what it is not, and the term ‘Afro-pessimism’ has been coined by some to criticize such solely negative depictions of a vast and varied continent. What, then, is ‘Africa’: a location on a map, a geographical boundary? Who are ‘Africans’? What does the idea mean and how is it used? This course draws on literature and popular culture to discuss the very idea of ‘Africa’ and how the concept has been created, redefined, re-imagined, and (de)constructed in differing times and spaces.