Description
[cross-listed with HST 3006 and LIT 3404] This is a reading-intensive course of African American literature from the 18th century to the present. We will read a wide selection of fiction, essays, folklore and poetry to aid in our understanding of how the creation of such a purely original literature, born out of a vernacular tradition, helped to combat racial bigotry and inequality in this country. Beginning with slavery and moving through the periods of Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, Modernism, the Black Arts Movement, and postmodernism, students will fully realize the close ties between history and literature that marks the African American experience.