Gossip as Alternative History [Online]
Full Tuition: $320 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.
Instructor: Shingai Kagunda | 5 Weeks | Thursdays | May 9 - June 6 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM ET | ONLINE
When asked about his acclaimed novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James replied without hesitation “All of it is rumor. In Jamaica, you trust rumors, you don’t trust facts. Facts come with an agenda.” In this course, we will use gossip and rumor in the service of personal storytelling, tracing our lineage through the spoken stories we have access to. In turning to gossip, we will reconsider what archival knowledge is and what it can be. Historically, the spoken word has been a rebellious medium of histories that were not written down, especially for marginalized groups banned from reading and writing, and for whom reading and writing in English was inaccessible. And at the heart of every good story there is a truth that is embellished and speculated upon. Gossip, rumours, tea, udaku... There are multiple words for the truth of a time, of a place, of a moment in history that passed through mouths, traveling into memory that isn't written down.
In this five week course, we will spend time with Critical Aunty studies–a new academic discipline that, according to founder Kareem Khubchandani, explores how aunties become abundant figures to think kinship, desire, aesthetics, and politics–which will give us insight into some of the most important figures for gossip and speculative fabulation. We’ll also explore opportunities to embed our kin gossip into our written creative endeavors. We will consider the art of subtext and embellishment in oral narratives.
We will be reading Kei Miller's Augustown, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's "Let's Tell This Story Properly" and excerpts from Saidiya Hartman's Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, while we research multiple versions of historical records in our own communities. —
Recordings may be provided upon request for missed classes.
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Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month. Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.
Asynchronous Auditing: Classes are discussion-based and designed to be taken synchronously. However, we do offer an asynchronous audit option for most online classes if you need to follow along at your own pace. You must choose the audit option to receive all course recordings; please do not register using a scholarship if you do not plan to attend the majority of class sessions as you will not receive the recording materials to follow along. We do not automatically offer scholarships for auditors, but if you need one, you may request one by filling out this form.