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Survey
of African American Literature
Syllabus/Course Schedule
Winter 2005
This
course provides an introduction to the rich and varied traditions
of African American literature. We will
look at literature in several genres, including novels, poetry, music, and
autobiographical writing. In addition,
we will examine the socio-historical context that influenced the writers we are
TO READ.
The goals
of this course are to teach you some fundamental skills of close TO READ, interpretation and literary
analysis, to better understand the African American literary tradition,
and to develop your interest in continuing the study of African American
literatures. We will examine the
historical and cultural conditions out of which the African American literary
tradition has developed, and we will explore biographical information about the
authors we will are TO READ, Unlike a
sociology or history course, however, our ultimate purpose in this literature
course is to consider, understand, and analyze the literary texts themselves.
The course is arranged historically around the theme of migration. We will be examining both literal and
metaphorical movement as we make our own semester-long journey. We will begin with the Middle Passage and examine experiences of forced
migration; then, we will examine the movement out
of enslavement, the Great Migration, and the movement to attain civil rights. Finally, as our survey moves into the
present, we will examine the role of the past in
the present and the problems and possibilities of social change for the future.
Key Concepts: race as a social construction; the Middle Passage; double consciousness
WEEK
1: January 5-8
Familiarize
Yourself with the Course
Read these items in Course Information:
Ø
How Does Online
Learning Work
Ø
Course Policies
and Requirements
Ø
Syllabus
Ø
Langston Hughes,
“Theme for
Introductory
Assignments (See Lectures
& Assignments)
Weekly
Activities
Ø
Introduce
yourself to the class and meet others
Ø
Respond to the
syllabus
Ø
Take the online
quiz (not graded but required) (due by Friday, January 8)
Ø
Weekly post
about Langston Hughes’s poem “Them for
WEEK
2: January 9-15
Race
vs. Ethnicity
TO READ:
Maya
Angelou, “Still I Rise,” http://www.empirezine.com/spotlight/maya/maya-p1.htm#Still%20I%20Rise
W.E.B. Du
Bois, “Double Consciousness” (available in Week 2 in Lectures & Assignments)
Note: A thru J
posts due by Monday
K
thru Z posts due by Wednesday
Friday, January 14: Sign up for leading online discussion due
to me via e-mail (See Course Information,
Leading Online Discussion Information,
“Sign up to Lead Online Discussion”)
Key Concepts: stereotypes; “white privilege”; deconstructing the color line
WEEK
3: January 16-22
Early
Writings
TO READ:
Poetry by
Phillis Wheatley in Vintage Book of
Poetry, 14
All poems by Wheatley in Vintage Book of Poetry
Preface material to her published volume of poetry, http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/wheatley.html
Ø
Title page and
“Preface”
Ø
“Copy of a
Letter”
Ø
“To the Publick”
Note: If you use the print function in your browser to
print material from this website, the entire volume of poetry will print.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative
of the Life of an American Slave
WEEK
4: January 23-29
The
Right to Write
TO READ:
Begin Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition,
Chapters 1-9, pages 1-92
Friday,
January 28 One quotation analysis due
WEEK
5: January 30-February 5
TO READ:
Continue The Marrow of Tradition, Chapters 10-19, pages 93-174
Peggy McIntosh,
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” http://www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/newsletters/vol2-2/mcintosh.htm
WEEK
6: February 6-12
TO READ:
Finish The
Marrow of Tradition
Friday,
February 11: Essay Midterm Exam available online at MIDNIGHT
WEEK
7: February 13-20
Post-Emancipation
Poetry, Vernacular Writing
TO READ:
Poetry by
Paul Laurence Dunbar, Vintage Book of
Poetry, 73
Ø
“When Malindy Sings”
Ø
“A Negro Love
Song”
Ø
“We Wear the
Mask”
Ø
“Sympathy”
Ø
“Dawn”
Ø
“Frederick
Douglass”
Ø
“Douglass”
Ø
“The Poet”
(available in the Week 7 lecture on Paul Laurence Dunbar)
Note: To hear these poems read aloud, go to http://www.plethoreum.org/dunbar/gallery.asp
Monday, February 14: Timed Midterm Exam
available online at MIDNIGHT
Friday, February 18 Midterm Due by MIDNIGHT
Movement III:
The Crisis of Representation
Key Concepts: the Harlem Renaissance; the New Negro; primitivism; exoticization
WEEK
8: February 20-25
Note:
Switch post due dates
A thru J posts due by Wednesday
K thru Z posts due by Monday
TO READ:
James Weldon Johnson, in Vintage Book of Poetry, 63
Ø
“O Black and
Unknown Bards” in Vintage Book of Poetry,
64
Ø
“The Creation”
in Vintage Book of Poetry, 68
Ø
“Lift Every
Voice and Sing” (available in Week 8 Lectures
& Assignments)
Langston Hughes, in Vintage Book of Poetry, 143
Ø
“Dream
Variations” in Vintage Book of Poetry,
144
Ø
“Frosting” in Vintage Book of Poetry, 145
Ø
“
Ø
“Mother to Son”
in Vintage Book of Poetry, 148
Ø
“The Negro
Speaks of Rivers” in Vintage Book of
Poetry, 150
Ø
“
Ø
“Good Morning”
(available in Week 8 Lectures &
Assignments)
Ø
“I, too”
(available in Week 8 Lectures &
Assignments)
Georgia Douglas Johnson in Vintage Book of Poetry, 96
Ø
“The Heart of a
Woman” in Vintage Book of Poetry, 96
Ø
“I Want to Die
While You Love Me” in Vintage Book of
Poetry, 97
Ø
“Old Black Men”
in Vintage Book of Poetry, 98
Claude McKay, in Vintage
Book of Poetry, 99
Ø
“If We Must Die”
in Vintage Book of Poetry, 99
Ø
“The White
House” in Vintage Book of Poetry, 100
Ø
“The
Ø
“The Tropics in
Listen
to Billie Holliday, “Strange Fruit”
(available in Week 8 Lectures &
Assignments)
Optional
Poems by:
Anne Spencer in Vintage
Book of Poetry, 92
Jean Toomer, in Vintage Book of Poetry, 102
Gwendolyn Bennett, in Vintage Book of Poetry, 140
Countee Cullen, in Vintage Book of Poetry, 153
Spring Break: February
26-March 5
WEEK
9: March 6-12
On
Women
TO READ:
Nella
Larsen, Quicksand, 1-135
Langston Hughes, “Cross” in Vintage Book of Poetry, 143
Friday, March 11: Last Day
to drop classes
WEEK
10: March 13-19
TO READ:
Begin Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes
Were Watching God, Chapters 1–10,
pages 1-99
Sojourner
Truth, speech: “Ain’t I a Woman” (1851), http://eserver.org/race/aint-i-a-woman.html
Alice
Walker, “Womanism” (1967) (available in Week 10 Lectures & Assignments)
WEEK
11: March 20-26
TO READ:
Finish
Their
Eyes Were Watching God
Friday, March 25: Quotation Anthology (with
Response Paper) due by MIDNIGHT
Key Concepts: socialization; systemic change; critical consciousness; empathy
WEEK
12: March 27-April 2
On Men
TO READ:
Richard
Wright, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” http://newdeal.feri.org/fwp/fwp03.htm
Ralph
Ellison, Prologue to Invisible Man
(1952) (available in Week 12 Lectures
& Assignments)
Gwendolyn
Brooks, “We Real Cool” in Vintage Book of
Poetry, 187
Etheridge
Knight, “The Idea of Ancestry” in Vintage
Book of Poetry, 225
Amiri
Baraka, “Black Art” in Vintage Book of
Poetry, 234
WEEK
13: April 3-9
TO READ:
Begin Octavia Butler, Kindred to page 143 (be sure
to read the “Prologue”)
WEEK
14: April 10-16
TO READ:
WEEK
15: April 17-20
TO READ:
Tupac Shakur
(available in Week 15 Lectures & Assignments)
Ø
“The Rose That Grew from Concrete”
Ø
“When Ure Heart
Turns Cold”
Ø
“Sometimes I
Cry”
Ø
“The Fear in the
Heart of a Man”
Ø
“In the Event of
My Demise”
Margaret
Walker, “For My People” in Vintage Book
of Poetry, 176
Classes
End: Wednesday, April 20
Final
Exam Information:
·
Friday, April 15: Essay Final Exam
available online at MIDNIGHT
·
Monday, April 18: Timed Exam available
online at MIDNIGHT
·
Final Exam Due: Friday, April 22 by
MIDNIGHT