Abolition Democracy through Fiction and Nonfiction Literature

This course will examine two select novels by Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Toni Morrison and three contemporary nonfiction works in the social sciences by Reuben Jonathan Miller, Bruce Western, and Danielle Sered. Together, the novels and the nonfiction work embody an intersectional and multidisciplinary to literature and social science as they relate to theories of abolition democracy. Readings are drawn from classic American Fiction, social science research, ethnography and practitioner expertise. An intersectional and cross disciplinary approach will incorporate race, gender, social policy, structural violence, and culture in experiences uniquely shared by Blacks, the Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)—particularly Black people–across the borders of economic status and locality. The fictional and non-fiction narratives encounter and interrogate a broad array of tough circumstances and behaviors: infanticide, romantic relationships, male dominance, white supremacy, interpersonal and institutional violence, family dynamics and tensions, socio-economic conditions, cultural survival, etc. Morrison’s novels are esteemed in the Black American literary tradition and she is among few Black women that hold equal esteem in the larger literary canon.  Miller, Western, and Sered have written distinct non-fiction works exploring various aspects of U.S. systems of mass punishment. These works combine to offer narrative framing and empirical evidence that informs a complex perspective on three practices deeply rooted in American culture and society:  white supremacy, punishment, and violence.