Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Course Description

This course is a survey of the multiple voices that form the African American literary experience. Our approach is mostly chronological, beginning with poetry and narratives of the slavery/abolitionist era, continuing to Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance era just after World War I and into the social critiques of writers like Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright. We then turn to the Black Power and Black Arts movements as epitomized by such writers as Amiri Baraka. The last part of the course moves into the contemporary period and the works of fiction writers Toni Morrison and S.A. Cosby and the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. We will also read poetry by writers of the Black Lives Matter movement. This class counts for credit toward the Africana Studies major and the English major, but you don’t have to be majoring in either one of these fields to take the class. This course will require active reading, writing, and participation in discussions.

Student Outcomes

Students will be able to: 1) Engage with and develop familiarity with significant authors of African American literature within their historical and aesthetic contexts. 2) Develop proficiency in close reading, analytical writing, and intelligent discussion. 3) Recognize the applicability of the works we study to issues of diversity and inclusion in the U.S.

Download

Share

COinS