ENGL 3740 - [Contemporary African American Poetry]

(crosslisted) AMST 3742, ASRC 3740
(LA-AS)

Spring. Not offered 2015-2016. 4 credits.

D. Woubshet.

This course will examine a variety of voices in contemporary African American poetry, focusing on works produced in the decades following the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. We will consider how new generations of black poets are using verse to represent personal and collective history; to interrogate race and other social categories like gender and sexuality; and to ungate new perspectives for understanding the human condition. Along with verse, we will also study other forms of poetry like Hip Hop and spoken word that inform the contemporary African American lyric. Authors will include Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Elisabeth Alexander, Natasha Trethewey, Terrance Hayes, and Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon.

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