General description |
This course is designed to provide students with a social and literary overview of African American writing in US., as well as a critical study of various genres such as vernacular tradition (Black English), short story, drama, and the novel. Beginning with slave narratives, we will analyze outstanding works from the Harlem Renaissance, the School of Protest, the Black Aesthetics Movement, to conclude with contemporary black women writers. We will read texts which are concerned with race, sex, and politics to see to what extent they are central in a larger cultural and historical mainstream context. Basically, the aim of this course is to provide students with knowledge of the literary roots of African American writing so that they may better contextualize more recent and relevant works. |