In this seminar we will consider African American poet and activist Audre Lorde’s sojourn in Germany. Contingent with this, Lorde’s contributions to transnational Black feminist scholarship and critical perspectives on race, gender and sexuality will be examined mainly in her prose writings. A significant aspect here is Lorde’s work at the Free University Berlin, which helped drive forward the Afro-German movement. Hence constructions and negotiations of what it means to be Black in German will be a focal point whereby historical experiences of Afro-Germans will be of significance, when considering contemporary Germany’s multicultural landscape. Attendant critical concerns include the African American military experience in Germany and the socio-cultural phenomenon of ‘Brown Babies’ - which demonstrate one form of transnational cultural relations between the US and Germany. Presentations will be a required part of the class. A reader will be made available. Students are required to have acquired the texts and read them before the class begins. Max. number of participants: 25 students Texts: Excerpts from Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Berkeley: Crossing Press. 2007. [1984] Excerpts from I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde (Eds.) Rudolph Byrd, Johnetta Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall. OUP. 2009. [provided in the reader] Ika Hügel-Marshall. Invisible Woman. Peter Lang. 2008. Maria Binder. Hoffnung im Herz: May Ayim. 1997. May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, Dagmar Schulz (eds.) Showing Our Colours: Afro-German Women Speak Out. (Transl. Anne V. Adams). Amherst: U of Pennsylvania. 1992. Michaela Kirst. Brown Babies. ARTE, June 2013. [TV Documentary Film, online.] Dagmar Schulz. Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992. 2011. [FILM] |
