BLST 376 Slavery, Freedom, and American Memory

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the contentious history of the public memory and representation of slavery, the Old South, and emancipation in the United States. Drawing upon a range of sources – including fiction, film, advertisements, tourist sites, and public monuments – we will examine the various ways that Americans have sought to commemorate, critique, and capitalize on the history of the nation’s “peculiar institution” from the late-nineteenth century to the present day. Throughout the semester, we will interrogate the contested politics of these popular representations, and we will assess the ways that African American writers, filmmakers, preservationists, and artists have sought to challenge and reframe longstanding Jim Crow-era representations of slavery, replacing them with new narratives informed both by historiographical paradigm shifts and the politics of the ongoing black freedom struggle.