Explore the complex interplay between invisibility, visibility, and the fantastic in African American literature. By examining 20th century neo-slave narratives through the lenses of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Fred Moten, Sylvia Wynter, and Tzvetan Todorov and with literary artists such as Octavia Butler and Toni Morrison, this course investigates the double-bind of visibility in African American culture, the subversive power of the fantastic, critical theories on blackness, nothingness, and the “overrepresentation of man” to understand how African American authors navigate the tensions between the seen and unseen, real and unreal, in their explorations of black identity and experience.