Spring 2014
Africana Studies 365 A
Dr. Charles Toombs
African American Literature to 1900
Office: AL 373A
TTH 11:00-12:15, PSFA 318
Office Hours: TTH 9:30-10:55am,
Schedule #: 20092
MW 10-12 and by appointment
ctoombs@mail.sdsu.edu
REQUIRED TEXT:
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American
Literature (2004)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Catalog description: Eighteenth and nineteenth century writing by African American authors.
Issues of literary form, canon formation, and sociopolitical impact of the literature upon African
American culture.
Africana Studies 365A studies African American literature from the late eighteenth century to
the turn of the twentieth century. The course interrogates texts, issues, themes, and writers that
define and advance the African American literary tradition. Various genres of writing are
analyzed within the social, political, economic, historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts that are
a part of the African American experience. This course assumes as one of its major premises that
the confluence of content (theme and subject), form (aesthetic structures), and context (social,
political, historical, etc.) of the literature helps to reveal the complex and sometimes
contradictory impulses of the African American experience. Major literary tools, vocabulary,
techniques, movements, and schools are used to assist in understanding and interpreting the
literature, in preparing written and oral assignments, and in passing midterm and final
examinations.
The mode of presentation is lecture-discussion.
PREREQUISITE:
Africana Studies 101B or completion of the General Education
requirement in Foundations H.C., Humanities required for nonmajors.
HUMANITIES AND FINE ARTS
The Humanities and Fine Arts encompass works of the imagination, such as art, literature, film,
drama, dance, and music, and related scholarship. Students better understand human problems,
responsibilities, and possibilities in changing historical contexts and diverse cultures, and in
relation to the natural environment. Students acquire new languages and familiarize themselves
with related cultures. They gain the ability to recognize and assess various aesthetic principles,
belief systems, and constructions of identity. Students acquire capacities for reflection, critique,
communication, cultural understanding, creativity, and problem solving in an increasingly
globalized world.
Goals for GE Courses in the Humanities and Fine Arts
• Goal 1: Analyze written, visual, or performed texts in the humanities and fine arts with
sensitivity to their diverse cultural contexts and historical moments.
• Goal 2: Develop a familiarity with various aesthetic and other value systems and the ways they
are communicated across time and cultures.
• Goal 3: Argue from multiple perspectives about issues in the humanities that have personal and
global relevance.
• Goal 4: Demonstrate the ability to approach complex problems and ask complex questions
drawing upon knowledge of the humanities.
Department Goals and Objectives:
Goal 2: Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the African world
experience as a dynamic and unfolding process
Objectives: (1) Explain the impact of slavery and colonization on African peoples and society,
(2) Explain the political, economic and social movements for liberation of African people in
America before 1900 and worldwide, (3) Identify and explain the dislocation and relocation of
African people throughout the world, (4) argue from multiple perspectives about issues in
African American literature before 1900 that have personal and global relevance. General
Education Humanities Goal 3 and 4
Goal 3: Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of Africana culture and world-view
Objectives: (1) Explain and assess the major principles and values of Africana world-view and
culture as demonstrated in the literature and its contexts, (2) Explain the major moral,
philosophical, aesthetic and ethical elements of Africana world-view and culture in the literature
and its contexts, (3) Explain the role of Africana world-view in society before 1900 and in
contemporary society. General Education Humanities Goal 2
Goal 4: Demonstrate an ability to think critically, analyze issues and present them orally and in
writing. General Education Humanities Goal 1
Objectives: (1) Analytically present and support an argument, (2) Critique the ideas and opinions
of others, (3) Write and present cohesive arguments demonstrating knowledge of research
techniques, documentation, organization, and the mechanics of writing on relevant topics or
subjects in African American literature before 1900
Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Explicate primary literary texts, in writing and orally
2. Use secondary resources to assist the advancement of a thesis in the longer course essay
3. Analyze the significance of a literary work by paying attention to its content, form, and
context
4. Elucidate the significance of an Africana literary work to self and contemporary society
5. Compare literatures of diverse cultures within society
6. Use literary terms and vocabulary with expertise and sophistication
7. Defend interpretations and positions by generously using details in the primary texts and
the contexts of the literature
8. Assess and analyze acts of resistance to white rule and/or authority on themes, style, and
characters/personas/narrators in the literature
9. Describe, identify, analyze, assess, and compare literary strategies used by Africana
authors to include authentic representations of Africana culture, history, philosophy,
world-view, and perspective
Grading and Testing: Grading and Testing:
Essay # 1 (2-3 pp, with two secondary sources)
= 10%
Essay # 2 (4-5 pp, with three secondary sources)
= 15%
Essay # 3 (6-8 pp, with four secondary sources)
= 20%
Midterm Examination (essay in format)
= 15%
Final Examination (essay in format)
= 20%
Three Quizzes (short answer/short essay)
= 15%
Class Participation
= 5%
___________________________________________________________
Total
=100%
A (95-100); A- (90-94); B+ (86-89); B (83-85); B- (80-82); C+ (76-79); C (73-75); C- (70-72);
D+ (66-69); D (63-65); D- (60-62); F (0-59)
ACCESSIBILITY:
Students who need accommodation of their disabilities should contact me privately to discuss
specific accommodations for which they have received authorization. If you have a disability,
but have not contacted Student Disability Services at 619-594-6473 (Calpulli Center, Suite
3101), please do so before making an appointment with me.
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it
is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any
delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as
soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that I cannot provide
accommodations based upon disability until I have received an accommodation letter from
Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
ATTENDANCE:
A student who has more than three unexcused absences will find it difficult to pass this course.
Unexcused absence # 4 will lower the student's final grade by five points. Unexcused absence #
5 will lower the student's final grade by another five points, and so on. The point: if you want to
succeed in this course, you will need to be here.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS:
Late assignments will not be accepted and missed exams will not be given without my prior
consent.
Come to class on time and leave when the class is completed. No sleeping in class. No textmessaging in class.
Please be courteous and respectful to your classmates and the instructor at all times. Feel free to
disagree with issues raised in class, but do so in a responsible way.
Plagiarism is serious. Please read the statement on plagiarism in the SDSU 2013-2014 General
Catalog. Please consult with me if you have any additional questions or concerns regarding
plagiarism.
Course Outline and Reading, Essay, and Exam Assignments
The Beginning of a Tradition: Slavery, Literacy, and Resistance
If no titles are given, we will read all selections by the writer.
Week 1 (Jan 23)
TH
Introduction to course
Week 2 (Jan 28-30)
T
“The Literature of Slavery and Freedom,” pp 151-162
Lucy Terry, Phillis Wheatley ("To the University" and "On
Being Brought")
TH
Week 3 (Feb 4-6)
T
George Moses Horton
TH
Harriet Jacobs (Preface to Chap. X)
QUIZ # 1
Week 4 (Feb 11-13)
Week 5 (Feb 18-19)
T
Jacobs (Chaps.XIV to XXXIX)
TH
Jacobs (Chaps. XL to XLI)
T
Sojourner Truth and Maria W. Stweart
TH
Wells Brown (Clotel, Chaps I to II)
Essay # 1 DUE
Week 6 (Feb 25-27)
Week 7 (Mar 4-6)
T
Brown (Chaps. IV to XIX)
TH
David Walker
T
Henry Highland Garnet
QUIZ # 2
Week 8 (Mar 11-13)
Week 9 (Mar 18-20)
TH
Victor Sejour
T
Elizabeth Keckley
TH
Midterm Examination
T
James Monroe Whitfield (“America”)
Week 10 (Mar 25-27)
TH
Frances E. W. Harper (“Ethiopia” to “A Double Standard”)
T
Douglass (Narrative, Preface to Chap. III)
TH
Douglass (Chaps. IV to VIII)
Spring Recess March 31-April 4
Week 11 (Apr 8-10)
T
Douglass (Chaps. IX to X)
TH
Douglass (Chaps. XI to Appendix)
ESSAY # 2 DUE
Week 12 (Apr 15-17)
Week 13 (Apr 22-24)
T
Martin R. Delany, pp. 255-266
TH
Delany, pp. 266-278
T
Harriet E. Wilson, Our Nig
“Literature of Reconstruction,” pp 541-554
TH
Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Paul Laurence Dunbar (“Ode to
Ethiopia,” “The Colored Soldiers,” “We Wear the Mask,”
and “A Negro Love Song”)
QUIZ # 3
Week 14 (Apr 29-May 1)
T
Charles W. Chesnutt (“The Goophered Grapevine” and
“The Wife of His Youth”)
TH
Anne Julia Cooper, Booker T. Washington
ESSAY # 3 DUE
Week 15 (May 6-8)
T
III)
Du Bois (Souls of Black Folk, “Forethought,” Essay I and
TH
Du Bois (Souls, Essay VI, X, XIV)
Last Day of Course
Final Examination: Tuesday, May 13, 10:30-12:30