Grief Grievance

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In this class we will explore the politics and poetics of loss in 20th and 21st century American literature and culture. Grounded in psychoanalytic and sociocultural theories of grieving, we'll study artistic and political movements galvanized by loss on both small and grand scales, including: the ongoing multi-genre tradition of Black artistic responses to racist violence, the poetry and performance culture of HIV/AIDS, work on "racial melancholia" and the Asian American immigrant experience, and the poetics of climate grief and eco-justice activism. The course will cover elegiac poetry, fiction, visual art, theater, film, and digital media. We will also explore political funerals and direct action activism.