Description
This course will focus on the study of literary works by Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison and examine their unique contributions to the American literary tradition. Readings will include poetry, essays, short stories, and novels by these three Womanist/Feminist authors. As Alice Walker writes, “In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.” We will look closely at how the various roles of black women throughout the turbulent history of slavery, the post-slavery reconstruction era, and the civil rights movement in America have informed the literature of Hurston, Walker and Morrison. The class will explore the formation of female identities through the textual representations of gender, class, race and cultural differences in the works studied. Class discussions will focus on themes such as the legacy of slavery, the development of black feminism, orality and textuality, sexuality, and the importance of (female) community in the literature of these three authors.