Monuments, Counter-Monuments, and the Representation of the Slave Past

This course is concerned with the memorialization and representation of the slave past through monumental form in the Atlantic world. Beginning with a range of theoretical considerations of the concepts of monument and counter-monument, we engage the writings of Ana-Lucia Araujo, Stephen M. Best, Huey Copeland, Cheryl Finlay, Saidiya Hartmann, Katherine McKittrick, Sowande’ M. Mustakeem, Christina Sharpe, Marita Sturken, Lisa Woolfork, James Young, and others. Using these various approaches and theories, we examine monuments located in a range of countries including Benin, Ghana, Senegal, England, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, Guadeloupe, and the United States.