GERM2120 · German Studies

Black Deutschland: Germany and the African Diaspora

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Though Germany has long conceived of itself as a white nation, it has been a temporary and permanent home for people of African descent since the Middle Ages. And white Germanophone authors from Franz Kafka to Gnter Grass have celebrated and appropriated elements of Black popular culture in their work. Focusing on the period between 1945 and the present day, this course will treat the contemporary legacies of German colonialism, transformations of discussions about race and racism following World War II and the Holocaust, and conceptions of multiculturalism and Europeanism. East German homages to Black activists and political leaders like Angela Davis and Nelson Mandela and West German claims of the utopic potential of African American culture will provide material for discussions of internationalist solidarity and cultural appropriation. Moreover, students will engage with the works of Black German and Afro-German writers and artists who critique Germanys self-conception as white, as well as texts by thinkers from the African diaspora (e.g., W.E.B. Du Bois and Audre Lorde) for whom experiences in Germany served as sources of intellectual and artistic stimulation.