ASRC 1816 - FWS: Black Life Writing

Fall. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

First-Year Writing Seminar.

C. Boyce Davies.

An examination of selected works by Zora Neale Hurston which allows the students to study this writer and simultaneously address issues of self-invention, creativity, the imagination and the writing of black lives. Framed within the genre of life writing, we will pay attention to how Hurston experienced and represented life as an African American woman in the U.S. South, the North during the Harlem Renaissance and in the African Diaspora. We will read and respond to a selection of works by Hurston in different genres – the essay, short story, folk tale, novel, life story (or autobiography). We will explore various approaches to writing through which students will work and develop writing skills in critical areas.