Survey of African-American Literature

Catalog description

This course is an introductory survey to the rich depth and breadth of African-American literature. We will be reading the novels of Charles Chestnutt, Nella Larson, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Colson Whitehead, among others. The purpose of this course is to examine Black life from multiple perspectives including socioeconomics, family history, the impact of race and racism, gender, and sexual identity. This course will also investigate how historical events such as slavery, the Great Migration, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement have shaped the Black aesthetic in literature.