African American Literature: Advanced ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

The purpose of this course is to introduce influential texts produced by African American thinkers, novelists, poets, dramatists and essayists from the eighteenth century to the present. Investigation of these texts allows the student to discover the major aesthetic, intellectual, and political concerns of these writers and their contexts, including oppressive systems like American chattel slavery and Jim Crow legislation. How African American writers explore intersections of race, class, and gender in their works is a particular focus of this course. Students taking African American Literature at the advanced level will conduct and integrate scholarly research into their analytical assignments.