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Academic Year 2003/2004


The Black African in the Early Modern Imagination
FIST 273 FA

Crosslistings:
CHUM 273
FRST 276

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 contacts 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.

MAJOR READINGS

Works to be studied include:
Leo Africanus's DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA
Linnaeus's THE SYSTEM OF NATURE
Herder's "Organization of the Peoples of Africa"
Buffon's A NATURAL HISTORY
Raynal's HISTORY OF THE TWO INDIES
Blumenbach's "On the Native Varieties of the Human Species"
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's PAUL AND VIRGINIA
Marivaux's ISLAND OF THE SLAVES
Olaudah Equiano's INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

There will be four papers in this class as well as in-class presentations.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

NOTE: Course attributes include Cross-Cultural Competency Rubric.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA FIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004


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