African American Literature of the Civil Rights Movement

Catalog description

Following the bus boycotts and other struggles for civil rights in the early 20 th century, African American writers created a literature that is not only distinctive from that of their literary ancestors, but intellectually and spiritually different from any other American literature across timed. The early years of this literature can be described as the most neo-African-centered of African American literary output, concerned, as it is, with the cultural values that writers such as Aime Cesaire, Leon Damas, and Leopold Senghor espoused. It is a literature that was a necessary corollary to the social. Economic, and political battles being waged in American’s streets, courts, congress, and in parts of the African diaspora. This course focuses, therefore, on the connections between the literary product and those particular social, political, and economic issues most of linked to the modern Civil rights and Black Power Movements, and beyond. In addition to novels, poems, and at least one play, the course will give serious consideration to the development of an African American Literary aesthetic through the study of critical essays. Satisfies English major and minor requirement. Satisfies Africana Studies major requirement. Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement. Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.