We will examine work by established and emerging scholars in 
tandem with a broad range of texts––works of fiction, 
autobiography, music, poetry, and cinema, etc. Several movies 
and documentaries will be shown in class. Special emphasis will 
be placed on the relevance of these texts to contemporary 
society around the world. Our methodological approach will be 
interdisciplinary, transnational, and transcultural in scope. In 
addition to intensive reading, students will give one 10-15 
minute presentation, a short essay based on the presentation 
(4-6 pages), and a final essay (8-10 pages). There will be 5 
quizzes in the semester. The course goals include the following: 
first, students will draw comparisons between the Black and 
Green Atlantics that go beyond the usual “influence” model, with 
the ultimate aim of reaching a better understanding of 
racialization processes in the transnational context. Second, in 
the process of active participation in class discussions, 
students will learn to hone their critical thinking skills, and 
third, students will learn to apply those skills through 
effective academic writing.

Suggested Topics Week by Week:

Week One	The Black and Green Atlantic I.	
		Tues: The Black and Green Atlantic: An    
                Introduction.
		
		Thurs: Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic 
		READINGS Gilroy Chapters 1 & 2

Week Two	The Black and Green Atlantic II.	
		Tues.: The Black and Green Atlantic 
		READINGS: Gilroy Chapters 3 & 4; David Lloyd.
		
		Thurs.: The Black Atlantic Cont.
 		READINGS Gilroy Chapters 5 & 6	
		In-class quiz.

Week Three	Irish Frederick Douglass
                Tues.: Documentary Film: Frederick Douglass 
                and the White Negro.
                Followed by discussion.
		READINGS: Selections from Douglass, My Bondage, 
                My Freedom. 

		Thurs.: Douglass in Ireland
		READINGS: Jenkins;* MacSweeney.** 

Week Four	Ventriloquizing Blackness: Eugene O’Neill and 
                Irish
                American Racial Performance.
		Tues.: Movie: The Emperor Jones. Followed by 
                discussion.
                READINGS: Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones
		Thurs.: Eugene O’Neill and The Emperor Jones
		READINGS: Robinson.*

Week Five	Under the Imperial Gaze: Ireland and Jamaica 
		Tues: Froude, Carlyle and Mill on Ireland and
                the Caribbean
		READINGS: Selections from James Anthony 
                Froude’s The English in the West Indies,**
                Thomas Carlyle, “The Negro Question,”** and
                J.S. Mill, “England and Ireland.”**
		Thurs.: Froude etc. cont.
		READINGS: Malouf, Ch 1. 

Week Six	Revolutionaries, Renegades, and Redlegs
		Tues.: In-class documentary film The Redlegs 
                (The Afro-Irish of Barbados.) Plus a film on
                Montserrat’s “Black Irish.”
		Thurs: In-class documentary film PBS’s Marcus 
                Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind followed 
                by lecture/discussion: The Irish Marcus Garvey
		READINGS: Garvey, Selected Writings**; Malouf 
                Ch. 2

Week Seven	Green Claude McKay 
		Tues: Banjo. PLUS Short movie clips on McKay’s
                poetry.
		READINGS: Claude McKay Banjo. Selected poetry.

		Thurs.: The Irish Claude McKay
		READINGS: McKay “How Black sees Green;”** 
                Malouf Ch. 3.

Week Eight	Black Samuel Beckett
		Tues.; Film: Waiting for Godot. Followed by 
                discussion.
		READINGS: Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. 

		Thurs.: Beckett and the Black Atlantic
		READINGS: Naito*

Week Nine	Irish Nationalism––Caribbean Poetics: 
		Tues. May 24th & Thurs. May 26th: Poetry in the 
                Black and Green
		READINGS: 
		Poetry: Selections from the following poets: W. 
                B. Yeats, Derek
                Walcott, Michael Collins, Marlene Nourbese  
                Philips, Eavan Boland. 
		Criticism: Malouf, “Epilogue;”
                Malouf, “Transatlantic Fugue;” Letmann.

Week Ten	Ireland to Africa
                Achebe, Things Fall Apart

		Yeats, “The Second Coming” and other poems.

Week Eleven	Africa to Ireland
                Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind.
		Friel. Translations

Week Twelve	Celtic Caribbean
                McCafferty, Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl
		Malouf Ch. 4.

Week Thirteen	Sounds Black and Green
		Music from Black 47; Afro-Celt Sound System. 
                Irish Reggae Band and more
                READINGS: Quigley.*

Week Fourteen	Black and Green on the Screen. 
	        Film. Students will choose music/ films of the 
                Black and Green Atlantic.
		READINGS: Malouf, Ch. 5.

Week Fifteen	TBA.

Week Sixteen	TBA

All readings marked with an asterisk (*) are in O’Neill and
Lloyd’s The Black and Green Atlantic. Those marked ** are
available on the course book.