ENGL 2650 - Introduction to African American Literature

(crosslisted) AMST 2650, ASRC 2650
(CA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

D. Woubshet.

This course will introduce students to the African American literary tradition. Through aesthetic and contextual approaches, we will consider how African American life and culture has defined and constituted the United States of America. From slave narratives to Hip-Hop music, we will trace the range of artistic conventions and cultural movements while paying close attention to broader historical shifts in American life over the past three centuries. We will ask: How do authors create and define a tradition? What are some of the recurring themes and motifs within this tradition? Authors will include: Phillis Wheatley, David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neal Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Paul Beatty.