Environment in African American Literature: Territory, Stomping Grounds, Turf

Catalog description

Environmental criticism, or an analysis focused on the natural world, and as a burgeoning field of thought, will take a front row seat in this class as we discuss Black writers and their depiction of African American culture in the context of eco-criticism, i.e., nature imagery and the natural environment. As such, we will trace the many ways Black characters are affected, consciously or unconsciously, by the natural settings within which they move. Students will be instructed on how to appreciate that certain characters are shaped by their proximity to the natural environment, and how such portrayals serve as an outlet for Black writers to explore race relations and the African American struggle for freedom and self-representation. Writers to be discussed may include Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ernest Gaines, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, among others.