ENG 283 - Southern Literature

Institution:

Wellesley College

Subject:

Description:

A study of the literature of the American South, with special focus on the region's unique cultural traditions, the development of a distinctive body of stylistic and thematic characteristics, and the complex intersections of region, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality in Southern literary expression. Topic for 2009-10: Gospel, Body, and Soul: Lyric Traditions in Black and White Tyler A study of black and white artists whose careers are defined by agonies of conversion. One white artist will be John Donne, a legendary ?convert? from profane to sacred art; another will be John Newton, whose own conversion (from slave trader to abolitionist) led him to write ?Amazing Grace,? a favorite hymn of both black and white congregations. Later in America, the true African-American equivalents of Donne differed from him by rejecting any ?progressive? evolution of words away from music-they were singers and songwriters, not poets. Accordingly, the course will introduce African-American (1) gospel songs of the 1930s-'60s; (2) sermons with their own refusals to exile words from melody; (3) and finally, the secular soul music which emerged from, or against, sacred music: here the artists will include Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Al Green-artists who, like Donne, struggled to ?convert? to proper uses their God-gi ven talents. Prerequisite: None Distribution: Language and Literature Semester: Fall

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wellesley.edu

Phone Number:

(781) 283-1000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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