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With a few notable exceptions, European missionaries, soldiers, slavers, and natural historians rarely penetrated into the interior of sub-Saharan Africa until the late eighteenth century. Nonetheless, travel accounts
by those who did venture to the
continent during the early modern era provided an abundance of raw material for a sustained and complex discussion of the black African in Europe. Not surprisingly, whatever the context within which the African was
evoked-be it in discussions of cultural
relativism, the state of nature, or comparative anatomy-the 'Ethiopian,' 'Hottentot,' or 'Guinean' functioned as yardsticks against which European civilization measured its presumed technical, cultural and, increasingly,
biological superiority. This was
, of course, most acutely true after the later part of the eighteenth century when pseudo-scientific racial theories were used to justify the continued existence of the slave trade.
Members of this seminar will
become familiar with the European
discourse on Africa by reading selections from travel accounts and natural history treatises as well as novels featuring European perceptions of the African. While we begin our examination of this topic with an overview
of the history of cultural contact
s between Europe, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa, this course is anything but African history. Indeed, the objective of this seminar will be to examine the evolution of the portrayal of Africans against a backdrop
of shifting European concerns.
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA FIST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-19-2002
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459