FRE 3307 - Colonial Desire

Credits: 4
This course introduces student to the mythology of the black woman’s sexuality in western culture and especially in francophone literature and culture. This mythology was developed in literary rewriting of the primitive from the 18th- to the early 20th-century. We will examine how this eroticized body bears traces of its social, political and cultural codification as well as shows the ways in which the colonial encounter shaped both western and non-western literary imaginaries. Discussions in class will focus on a variety of documentary and narrative sources,essays, novels, images and films, that attest to what many theorists refer to as “colonial desire.” Readings will include literary, philosophical, scientific, and historical writings.
McDaniel Plan: International Nonwestern, Social, Cultural, and Historical Understanding