AFCA 266 - Introduction to African American Literature

Crosslisted With ENGL 266
Prerequisite: Completion of the foundational writing (FDR:FW) requirement.
FDR: Literature (HL)
Credits: 3

This course offers an introduction to African American literature from the 1700s to the present. We will ground our inquiry across these centuries by attending to the role writing has played in the fight for freedom, in different ways of thinking about Blackness, in redefining citizenship, in evolving stylistic conventions, in responding to the political needs of the moment, in (re)writing gender expectations, and in an ever-changing landscape of American literary history. Potential writers include: Phyllis Wheatley Peters, David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, James McCune Smith, W.E.B. Du Bois, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Angelina Weld Grimke, Charles Chesnutt, Chester Himes, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrison.