Fall 2008 Courses

English 375-01: African American Literature to 1900 (English)

T/TH 1:20-2:50pm MAIN 001

In this survey course, we will trace the development of an African American literary tradition from the end of the 18th century to the turn of the twentieth century, from Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano to Paul Laurence Dunbar and Pauline Hopkins. We will explore the longstanding project of writing an African American self as both a literary and a political subject. We will read closely, critically, and appreciatively from multiple genres, including lyric and "protest" poetry, slave narratives, essays, short stories, autobiographies, novels, and transcribed oral addresses. We will supplement our exploration of those texts with critical and theoretical readings. Among the themes that will organize the course are: writing as a political act; generic innovation and subversion; changing constructions of race; literary representations of gendered and classed experiences of blackness in the United States; aesthetic innovation in relation to political and social change; an ongoing vernacular and/or oral tradition within African American arts and letters; the politics of audience; and the limits of literary representation itself. Requirements include: two papers of about 10 pages each, an in-class presentation, and a final exam.

*First day attendance required. Prerequisite: a 100-level english course other than 120.* This course fulfills either the U.S. writers of color or the pre-1900 American literature requirement for the English major. It also fulfills the Writing and U.S. Multiculturalism general education requirements.

Fall 2008 Course Listings