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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
This introductory course traces the development of a distinct African American literary tradition by focusing on the call and response pattern of slavery through the civil rights, feminist, and Black Power liberation movements. Students examine the music, oratory, letters, poems, essays, slave narratives, autobiographies, fiction, and plays by Americans of African descent. Two essential questions shape this course: What is the role of African American literature in the cultural identity and collective struggle of black people, and what should that role be What themes, tropes, and forms connect these texts, authors, and movements into a coherent living tradition Enrollment limited to 25. T. Robinson.
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3.00 Credits
Tracing the stirrings of Victorian medievalism from the landscapes of Arthurian romance to the Gothic revival in literature, architecture, and art, this course examines how nineteenth-century visions of the past intersect with issues of gender, class, nationalism, industrialization, and faith. Special attention is given to the relationship between nostalgia, medievalism, and "the ache of modernism" in Thomas Hardy's late novels-in particular, how these impulses impact the traditional Victorian novel's project of social realism; the critical, rational vision it espouses; and its inevitable extinction as a culturally dominant form. Additional authors may include Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Ruskin, Rossetti, Eliot, and Wilde. Enrollment limited to 25. K. Bowen.
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3.00 Credits
While African American musical traditions command attention on stages across the world, they have a unique home in African American literature. This course explores folk, sacred, blues, jazz, and hip-hop music as aesthetic and sociopolitical resources for African American authors. Course texts may include poetry, drama, fiction, criticism, and theory. Authors include Sterling Plumpp, Toni Morrison, Jayne Cortez, Albert Murray, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Larry Neal, and Ralph Ellison. Not open to students who have received credit for First-Year Seminars 287. Enrollment limited to 25. Staff.
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3.00 Credits
While it has always been part of global culture and politics, Africa is now recognized as a continent of import in a most necessary global conversation about ecological change. This course examines ecological influences on literature by Anglophone authors of African descent. The study of the aesthetic and cultural imprint of individual authors is informed by readings that detail broader issues affecting ecological perceptions in human groups. Students also examine interpretations of human biodiversity that have contributed to the neglect of African and African diasporic artistic and philosophic perspectives on ecological issues. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Recommended background: course(s) in African American studies and/or environmental studies. Enrollment limited to 25. Normally offered every year. Staff.
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3.00 Credits
This course examines black lesbian and gay literatures in English from Africa, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Students are introduced to critical and historical approaches for analyzing literature about black queer sensibilities. Open to first-year students. [W2] C. Nero.
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3.00 Credits
This course examines the literatures of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and France. Some texts are drawn from Anglophone authors such as Lamming, Anthony, Walcott, Brodber, Danticat, Lovelace, Brathwaite, and Denis Williams; others, from Francophone and Hispanophone writers, including Guillen, Carpentier, Condé, Chamoiseau, Depestre, Ferré, and Morejón. The course places each work in its historical, political, and anthropological contexts. Students are introduced to a number of critical theories and methodologies with which to analyze the works, including poststructuralist, Marxist, Pan-African, postcolonial, and feminist. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: African American Studies 100 or 140, 162, 212; African American Studies/English 121X and 253; Anthropology 155, 228, 234, 251; English 292, 294, or 295. S. Houchins.
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3.00 Credits
The course offers an introduction to a range of contemporary poetry, considered in light of key concerns in ecopoetics: What is an environmental poem Can language address the nonhuman How do poets engage in dialogue with science Is there a difference between ecopoetics and nature poetry To explore these questions, each week students read a different recently published book of poetry. Each book is paired with significant precursor works. Discussions thus incorporate some introduction to major currents in poetry as well as to the current state of the art. Students choose a creative or a critical track but are also asked to do some experimenting in the other mode. As some authors studied present their work in the Language Arts Live reading series, attendance at these readings is a requirement for the course. Recommended background: English 121C, 121D, and Environmental Studies 205. Enrollment limited to 25. J. Skinner.
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3.00 Credits
In his infamous essay, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," Langston Hughes argued that black artists should look at black cultural art forms instead of imitating Euro-American art. Hughes insisted that blues music represented an original art form that articulated the experiences of African Americans. This course explores the life of Langston Hughes and his contributions to the development of a blues aesthetic in African American literature. Selections by other prominent writers and critics, such as Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, Gayl Jones, Albert Murray, Alan Lomax, and Houston Baker also contribute to this exploration of the blues aesthetic. Prerequisite(s): One 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. T. Robinson.
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3.00 Credits
An examination of the African American novel from its beginnings in the mid-1800s to the present. Issues addressed include a consideration of folk influences on the genre, its roots in the slave narrative tradition, its relation to Euro-American texts and culture, and the "difference" that gender as well as race makes in determining narrative form. Readings include narratives selected from among the works of such writers as Douglass, Jacobs, Wilson, Delany, Hopkins, Harper, Chesnutt, Johnson, Toomer, Larsen, Hurston, Wright, Petry, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Marshall, Reed, and others. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. T. Robinson.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores folklore, myths, and literary texts of the African continent. These include works written by Anglophone authors such as Achebe, Soyinka, Ngugi, Vera, Njau, Nwapa, and Head; those drawn from oral traditions of indigenous languages transcribed into English, such as The Mwindo Epic and The Sundiata; and those written by Lusophone and Francophone authors including Ba, Senghor, Liking, Neto, Mahfouz, and Kafunkeno. The course contextualizes each work historically, politically, and anthropologically. Students are introduced to a number of critical theories and methodologies with which to analyze the works, such as poststructural, Marxist, Pan-African, postcolonial, and feminist. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: African American Studies 100 or 140A, African American Studies/English 121X, 212, 253, African American Studies/Rhetoric 162, Anthropology 155, 228, English 292, 294, or 295. S. Houchins.
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