Keywords
The search terms you choose can be the difference between successful or unsuccessful searches. The computer doesn't "know" what you are looking for. It only knows to look for the strings of characters you provide so, getting the right words/phrases is important.
Be sure and see the "search strategies" tab above to get some pointers on how to input the words for best results.
Here are a few suggested keywords related to your specific course-
"Black gothic"
(use the quotation marks to force the computer to see this as a phrase, the words have to be next to each other to be helpful)
horror
haunting
monstrosity [ try monst* as the term to pick up all forms of the word]
racism [ also explore using OR to get at concepts- Race or Racism or Racial]
otherness
"speculative fiction"
Any of these terms could also be used with the OR between them so, horror or haunting or otherness
Keywords From Recent Course Readings
Ring Shout, P. P. Djèlí Clark: monsters, Ku Klux Klan, ring shout, Birth of a Nation, ancestry, racial violence, cultural memory and traditions, spirituality
The Gilda Stories, Jewelle Gomez: vampires, queer, kinship, chosen family, Black feminism, afrofuturism, Slavery, mythology, monstrosity, humanity, Futurity
Stigmata, Phyllis Alesia Perry: ancestry, ancestral ghosts, madness, generational haunting, generational trauma, Middle Passage, matrilineal relationships
A note about subject headings
When searching a database or the library catalog, use the following recommended keywords or subject words for African-American studies material:
"African-American" OR "Afro-American" OR "Black"
Different indexing words were used during different time periods, so the best search term depends on the publication date of the material.
To locate items from a variety of dates, string all of the various search term together like this:
(African-American OR Afro-American OR Black)
Keywords are a great way to get started in the catalog and find what you want by looking at subjects or other keywords that come up.
Keywords for African American Studies by Call Number: E-BookISBN: 9781479852833Publication Date: 2018-Introduces key terms, interdisciplinary research, debates, and histories for African American Studies As the longest-standing interdisciplinary field, African American Studies has laid the foundation for critically analyzing issues of race, ethnicity, and culture within the academy and beyond. This volume assembles the keywords of this field for the first time, exploring not only the history of those categories but their continued relevance in the contemporary moment. Taking up a vast array of issues such as slavery, colonialism, prison expansion, sexuality, gender, feminism, war, and popular culture, Keywords for African American Studies showcases the startling breadth that characterizes the field. Featuring an august group of contributors across the social sciences and the humanities, the keywords assembled within the pages of this volume exemplify the depth and range of scholarly inquiry into Black life in the United States. Connecting lineages of Black knowledge production to contemporary considerations of race, gender, class, and sexuality, Keywords for African American Studies provides a model for how the scholarship of the field can meet the challenges of our social world.
