Post-Soul Black Literature

Catalog description

Many believed that the 1964 Civil Rights Act would usher in a radically different era of freedom and opportunity for all Black Americans, ultimately improving their quotidian experiences with racism. This has not proved true. In this course, we will approach the study of Black literature by understanding that, in some ways, life informs art and/or the artists who create it. We will read literature and theory written after the signing of the Civil Rights Act identifying common themes, styles, imagery and artistic strategies emerging from what literary critic Mark Anthony Neal has termed the "post-soul imagination". How are African American authors articulating the concepts of freedom and citizenship as raced and gendered subjects into the 21st century? Likely authors may include: Octavia Butler, Brittney Cooper, Michelle Elam, Percival Everett, Victor LaValle, and Kiese Laymon.