African American Literature

Catalog description

This thematic survey explores how African American authors write about what it means (and has meant) to be a Black person in the U.S. Exploring poetry, autobiography, drama, short stories, novels, essays, and films, we grapple with the multifaceted experiences of "Blackness" in literary texts produced from the era of slavery to the present. Through our reading we develop an understanding of specific African American literary traditions.