Spring 2006 Courses

English 379:Topics in 19th Century African American Literature: From Non-Fiction to Fiction: 19th Century African American Narratives (English)

T/TH 1-2:30 pm, Old Main 001

In this course, we will trace and analyze the remarkable shift from nonfiction to fiction that occurred in narratives written by African Americans during the mid-19th century.  Reading slave narratives, novels, spiritual autobiographies, and multiple versions of autobiographies, we will explore the possibility that fictionalized representations of an African American literary and political subject functioned as a necessary counterpart to the (contested) emergence of modern African American citizenship.  At the same time, we will challenge the nonfiction-fiction distinction itself—for example, by closely examining the generic instability of slave narratives, which often relied upon the conventions of fiction in order to deliver the “truth” of slavery.  We will develop strongly historical contexts for our exploration and will read extensively in literary criticism and theory about 19th century African American literature.  Texts will include Douglass’s Narrative of the Life, My Bondage and My Freedom, and “The Heroic Slave”; Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; John Jacobs’s “A True Tale of Slavery”; Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig; and William Wells Brown’s Clotel.   Requirements for the course will include: short weekly written responses to the readings, one paper of about 5 pages, one term paper of about 15 pages, and an in-class presentation.  This course will fulfill either the “emergent voices” or the pre-1900 American literature requirement for English majors; it will also fulfill the college’s domestic diversity requirement.

Spring 2006 Course Listings