AAAS 134 X: "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved by You:" Black Love and the Emotional Politics of Respect

Course:

AAAS 134 X: "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved by You:" Black Love and the Emotional Politics of Respect

 

Professors:

Jamaica Kincaid & Marcyliena Morgan

 

The word 'love' is almost never used in any portrayal or description of the African American community's daily life in contemporary media and in the social sciences. But love, as a human experience, is central to our understanding of what it means to be a vital member of a culture and society and thus respected, nurtured, etc.   Love, in all its many forms: familial, erotic, romantic, fraternal, is abundant, sometimes dominant, in Black culture in the form of song, film, poetry and rhyme, and literature. This course will review and analyze the ‘look of Black love’ in the humanities and social sciences and writings on intersubjectivity, family, language and ritual.  It will also look at the absence of love within and toward the African American community and love’s role in movements like Black Lives Matter.  We will closely read, watch and listen to some of the many Black artists who have looked deeply at this thing called Love.   How Sweet it Is explores and analyzes Black Love from the perspective of:  family, romance, sexuality, racism, dominant society and institutions and space, place and home.