Literature 2154 - Dark Comedy:Humor in African American Literature

Institution:

Bard College

Subject:

Description:

Africana Studies, American Studies, SRE Students explore the use, in African American literature, of humor, particularly satire, as a tool for identifying and deconstructing the absurdities of race, assimilation, and historic memory. The course begins with the newly emboldened writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Students read George Schuyler and Wallace Thurman and examine how the political comedy of those writers was furthered by Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Through close reading of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Charles Johnson, students identify how African and southern American folklore informed the modern comic tradition. Chester Himes's Pinktoes and Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo provide an opportunity to explore gender and status in relationship to satire. Trey Ellis's Platitudes, Paul Beatty' s The White BoyShuffle, and Percival Everett's Erasure reveal why a disproportionate percentage of black America's strongest writers continue to be drawn to the satiric form.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.bard.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 758-6822

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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