AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES: HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR. AND CORNEL WEST

What's here

• Reading assignments for this session
  
• Study questions on Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  
• Study questions on Cornel West
  
• What next?--where to go from here
  

Assignment for next time

• Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "Writing, 'Race,' and the Difference It Makes," and "The Master's Pieces," Loose Canons: 17-69. (on reserve)
  
• Cornel West, "The New Cultural Politics of Difference," The Postmodern Turn: 65-81. (on reserve)
  
• Cornel West, "The Postmodern Crisis of the Black Intellectuals," Cultural Studies: 689-705. (on reserve)

Study questions on Gates

1. I suggest that you begin your readings from Gates with "Writing, 'Race,' and the Difference It Makes," since it's the earlier piece. Look at its rhetoric carefully, and ask why Gates so often puts the word "race" in quotation marks. What does he want those quotation marks to signify or suggest? How would you compare his attitude towards "race" with, say, Judith Butler's attitude towards gender or lesbianism or sexuality?

2. In "Writing," Gates borrows from both Derrida and Foucault. What has he taken from each of them? What, if anything, has he decided not to take from them? When Gates calls for "indigenous" forms of criticism and theory (see 67), what do you suppose he might have in mind?

3. As you read "Master's Pieces," do you see any shifts, any new developments, in Gates's thinking? What about his rhetoric? Do you see any changes there? Has he mellowed, soured, or stayed pretty much the same?

4. In "Master's Pieces," Gates announces that he has been given the task of editing an anthology of African-American literature. What kinds of problems are associated with this task? Are such problems unique to this particular anthology? In other words, is the creation of an African-American anthology different from the creation of any other anthology? If so, what is the difference?

Study questions on West

1. In his opening paragraph, West remarks on a recent shift in the "sensibilities and outlooks of critics and artists." What kind of shift does he have in mind? How is West's shift like the shifts described by other po-mo theorists--e.g., Jameson?

2. How would you describe West's attitude towards the issue of canon formation? Does he feel that canons are merely instruments of political oppression? Does he feel that "culture workers," especially those in sympathy with radical liberatarian politics, should judge artworks solely on the basis of their political orientations? (HINT: NO!! His position is much more complex than that.)

3. On page 73, West speaks about "the end of Black innocence." What does he have in mind here? What kind of "Black innocence" does he think is ending? And how, finally, does he feel about the fact that "Black innocence" is ending? Is happy or sad (or both) to see it go?

4. Through the '80s and '90s, Gates and West have been the major figures in African-American cultural criticism, with an influence rivalled only by that of Houston Baker and bell hooks. What do Gates and West seem to share, and how do they seem to differ? In responding to these questions, you might consider what Gates and West have to say about the following issues:

a. the nature and value of "canons" and "canonical works," including those of white, European artists;

b. the legacy of poststructuralist or postmodern theorists, especially Derrida and Foucault;

c. the political and social responsibility of the critic, the theorist, the artist, and the "culture worker."

What next?

• Homepage for English 60A
  
• Syllabus for week nine (African-American studies)
• Students' comments on Gates and West
  
• Links to internet resources on African-American studies