African American Fiction, 1940 to Present

Catalog description

A comparative study of novels by African American men and women, beginning with Richard Wright and Ann Petry in the 1940s, continuing through the 50s and 60s with writers such as Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker, and ending with major novelists from the 1970s, such as Charles Johnson, Toni Cade Bambara, Ernest Gaines, and Toni Morrison. The course focuses on topics such as family, religion, education, and urban experience, education, gender and sexuality, and shifting definitions of Blackness. Narrative techniques offer a main thread of discussion throughout the course.