Africana Studies 365B: African American Literature after 1900
Spring 2015
TTH 11 AM – 12:15 PM
Dr. Charles Toombs
Office: AL 373A
Schedule #: 20107
Office Hours: TTH 10-10:50, 12:30 2:00 and by appointment
Room: PSFA 318
Phone: (619) 594-6532 or 594-6531
ctoombs@mail.sdsu.edu
Required Texts:
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Valerie A. Smith, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American
Literature Volumes 1 and 2 (2014), Third Edition
Catalog Description:
AFRAS 365B.
Prerequisite: Africana Studies 101B or 260 or completion of the General Education requirement in
Foundations of Learning II.C., Humanities required for nonmajors.
Writing by African American authors after 1900. Issues of literary form, canon formation and
sociopolitical impact of the literature upon African American and American culture of the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries. African American Literature After 1900 (3) [GE]
Course Description:
AFRAS 365B studies African American literature from 1900 to the present. The course interrogates
texts, issues, themes, subject matter, and writers that define and advance the Africana literary tradition
in America. Various genres of writing are analyzed and discussed within the social, political,
economic, historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts that are a part of Africana experience. The course
assumes 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 Africana experience in America. Major literary tools, vocabulary,
techniques, movements, and schools are used to assist in demonstrating understanding and
interpretation of the literature, in preparing written and oral assignments, and in passing assessment
instruments of the course.
The mode of presentation is lecture-discussion.
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.
Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Explicate primary literary texts, both orally and in writing
2. Use secondary resources to assist the advancement of a thesis in course essays
3. Describe the significance of a literary work by paying attention to content, form, and context
4. Describe the significance of an Africana literary work to self and contemporary society
5. Compare literatures of diverse cultures within a 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 contexts
of the literature
8. Describe acts of resistance to white rule and/or authority on themes in the literature
9. Demonstrate how acts of self-definition inform the literature
10. Describe, identify, and analyze literary strategies used by Africana writers to include authentic
representations of Africana culture, history, philosophy, world-view, and perspective
Departmental goals and objectives:
Goal 3: Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of Africana culture and world-view
Objectives: (1) Explain the major principles and values of Africana world-view and culture, (2)
Explain the major moral, philosophical and ethical elements of Africana world-view and culture, (3)
Explain the role of Africana world-view in contemporary society
Goal 4: Demonstrate an ability to think critically, analyze issues and present them orally and in writing
Objectives: (1) Analytically present and support an argument, (2) Critique the ideas and opinions of
others, (3) Write and present a cohesive argument demonstrating knowledge of documentation,
organization, and the mechanics of writing
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
= 15%
One Oral Presentation (of literary criticism on an assigned reading) = 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.
ATTENDANCE:
A student who has more than two un-excused absences will find it difficult to pass this course. Unexcused absence #3 will lower the student’s final grade by five points. Un-excused absence #4 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:
Please be courteous and respectful to the instructor and your classmates at all times.
No text-messaging during class.
See the SDSU General Catalog 2014-2015 or me for what plagiarism is and its seriousness.
CHEATING/PLAGARISIM
“Cheating shall be defined as the act of obtaining or attempting to obtain credit for academic work by the use of
dishonest, deceptive, or fraudulent means. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to (a) copying, in
part or in whole, from another’s test or other examination; (b) discussing answers or ideas relating to the
answers on a test or other examination without the permission of the instructor; (c) obtaining copies of a test, an
examination, or other course material without the permission of the instructor; (d) using notes, cheat sheets, or
other devices considered inappropriate under the prescribed testing condition; (e) collaborating with another or
others in work to be presented without the permission of the instructor; (f) falsifying records, laboratory work,
or other course data; (g) submitting work previously presented in another course, if contrary to the rules of the
course; (h) altering or interfering with the grading procedures; (i) plagiarizing, as defined; and (j) knowingly
and intentionally assisting another student in any of the above.
2.2 Plagiarism shall be defined as the act of
incorporating ideas, words, or specific substance of another, whether purchased, borrowed, or otherwise
obtained, and submitting same to the University as one’s own work to fulfill academic requirements without
giving credit to the appropriate source. Plagiarism shall include but not be limited to (a) submitting work, either
in part or in whole, completed by another; (b) omitting footnotes for ideas, statements, facts, or conclusions that
belong to another; (c) omitting quotation marks when quoting directly from another, whether it be a paragraph,
sentence, or part thereof; (d) close and lengthy paraphrasing of the writings of another; (e) submitting another
person’s artistic works, such as musical compositions, photographs, paintings, drawings, or sculptures; and (f)
submitting as one’s own work papers purchased from research companies.
Academic and Punitive Sanctions: Cheating and plagiarism in connection with the academic program at The
University may warrant two separate and distinct courses of disciplinary action that may be applied
concurrently in response to a violation of this policy: (a) academic sanctions, such as grade modifications; and
(b) punitive sanctions, such as probation, suspension, or expulsion. Academic sanctions are concerned with the
student’s grades and are the responsibility of the instructor involved. Punitive sanctions are concerned with the
student’s records and status on campus and shall be the responsibility of the University President or designated
representative. The Coordinator of Judiciary Procedures shall be the President’s representative in matters of
student discipline.”
http:/senate.sdsu.edu/policy/pfacademics.html
Late assignments are not accepted and make-up quizzes and/or exams are not given unless my Prior
approval is given.
Course Outline and Reading, Essay, Quiz, and Exam Assignments. Oral presentations will
occur throughout the semester.
If no titles are given we will read all selections in the anthology (volumes 1 and 2) by the writer.
Week 1 (Jan 22)
TH
Introduction to course
Literature of the Post-Reconstruction
Week 2 (Jan 27-29)
T
TH
Booker T. Washington, “Atlanta Exposition Address”
Du Bois, from Souls of Black Folk, “Forethought,” Chaps. I, III,
XIV
Week 3 (Feb 3-5)
T
TH
Charles Chesnutt, “The Wife of His Youth”
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “A Negro Love Song,” “We Wear the
Mask“, and “Sympathy”
Week 4 (Feb 10-12)
T
TH
James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography, Preface to Chap IV
Johnson, Autobiography, Chaps V to VII
QUIZ # 1
Week 5 (Feb 17-19)
T
TH
Johnson, Autobiography, Chaps. VIII to end
“Harlem Renaissance,” pp 929-944
The Harlem or New Negro Renaissance
Week 6 (Feb 24-26)
T
TH
Arthur Schomburg
Angelina Weld Grimke, “The Black Finger”
Alain Locke
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Marcus Garvey
Claude McKay, “Harlem Shadows,” “If We Must Die,”
“America, “ and “The White House
DUE: Essay # 1
Week 7 (Mar 3-5)
T
TH
Toomer, from Cane, “Karintha, “ Becky,” and “Fern”
Hurston, “Sweat” and “How It Feels to be Colored Me”
Week 8 (Mar 10-12)
T
Midterm Examination
TH
No Class, NCBS Conference
T
Hughes, “I, Too,” “Red Silk Stockings,” “Afro-American
Fragment,” “Harlem,” “Theme for English B”
“Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “Mother to Son,” “The Weary
Blues” and “Harlem”
Week 9 (Mar 17-19)
TH
Week 10 (Mar 24-26)
T
Countee Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel” and “Incident”
Helene Johnson
Larsen, Passing, Part One
QUIZ # 2
TH
Larsen, Passing, Part Two
DUE: Essay # 2
Spring Recess, March 30- April 3
Week 11 (Apr 7-9)
T
TH
Larsen, Passing, Part Three
“Realism, Naturalism, Modernism,” pp 93-107
Modernism, Black Arts, Post-Modernism
Week 12 (Apr 14-16)
T
TH
Week 13 (Apr 21-23)
Week 14 (Apr 28-30)
Week 15 (May 3-5)
Margaret Walker, “For My People and “For Malcolm”
Brooks, “the mother,” “We Real Cool” and “Chicago Defender”
Ellison, Prologue and Chapter 1 (Battle Royal)
Wright, from Black Boy, Chaps. 13 and 16
T
Mari Evans
Etheridge Knight
Nikki Giovanni
QUIZ # 3
TH
Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”
A. Walker, “Women,” “Everyday Use”
T
TH
Morrison, Sula
Morrison, Sula
DUE: Essay # 3
T
Morrison, Sula
TH
Last opportunity for oral presentations
Last day of course
Review
Final Examination: Tuesday, May 13, 10:30 am-12:30 pm