This course asks: what do discussions of contemporary social issues look like when depicted in popular literatures written by writers of African descent? What is the benefit of fictionalizing these issues in genre literatures? Students address these questions by examining the forms of "speculative fictions" (specifically thriller, science fiction/fantasy, and mystery/detective) as well as urban romance to determine how each represents concerns of twentieth/twenty-first century black peoples in the U.S., Canada, Jamaica, and Martinique. Our focus on these genres' explorations of race, class, culture, incest, social engineering, and intimate relationships is complemented by socio-historical studies of these issues and countries.
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