ENGL 7063 Politics of African American Piety:
Spring 2009: Tu 5:30-8:15 p.m.
Main Building 1.208
Dr. Joycelyn Moody
Office location: 2.306C Main
Office hours: Wednesdays 4-6 pm & by appt
Office phone: 210.458.6857
Email: joycelyn.moody@utsa.edu
winged women was saying
“full of grace” and like.
was light beyond sun and words
of a name and a blessing.
winged women to only i.
i joined them, whispering
yes.—Lucille Clifton, “mary’s dream” (1980)
Course goals. Sometimes in pinstripes and at other time in very broad strokes, we will examine
the role of Christianity in the social, cultural, and literary representations of the lives of African
Americans from the end of the eighteenth century through the present day. Paying particular
attention to black masculinity, we will study the use of Christian doctrine as a rhetorical strategy
deployed to articulate and affirm black humanity and to insist on African American intelligence
and spirituality. Course readings have been selected to facilitate explorations of blacks’ uses of
tropes of Christianity and religious salvation in the pursuit of civil and human rights. The focus
on black masculinity will also provide instruction about a variety of ways that African American
men have deployed the rhetoric of religion in pursuit of spiritual growth and US citizenship.
Contrasting early Afro-Protestantism with present-day black spirituality will enable us both to
trace historical shifts in blacks’ religious and sociopolitical values and practices before abolition
as well as to theorize the function of Christianity in the lives of African Americans today.
Course requirements.
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Regular, prompt attendance (two absences allowed, no
explanations required)
Intellectual integrity
(2) Self-Assessments (due Jan. 27 and May 5, respectively)
Conversation with the professor before Jan. 29.
Critical Reading Notebook (six entries)
Lead (at least one) class discussion with 4-6 pp precirculated position paper and selected bibliography
Seminar Symposium Project (due in turn: topic, abstract
with hypothesis, preliminary bibliography, rough draft,
revised version)
Book review or review of reviews of a preapproved book
All written work must be punctually submitted for successful completion of the seminar; no
written assignment is optional. Late written work will be penalized for every calendar day an
assignment is late. “Incomplete” grades will be granted only in extreme circumstances.
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Students are expected to act on the highest ethics of academic honesty. Such conduct as
plagiarism, collusion to cheat, the use of another person’s research without appropriate
acknowledgement or attribution, or the misuse of previously prepared course material will not be
tolerated. If charges of academic dishonesty are found valid, a student may be reported to the
Department Chair for disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion. Adjudicated cases of
plagiarism will result in immediate failure of the entire course.
All written work should be typed in 12-point font with one-inch margins on all sides.
Self-Assessments (pass-fail). The first writing assignment is a 1-2-page typed, single-spaced
Intellectual Autobiography written at the outset of the course. It should clarify the thoughts and
experience you bring to the course—your expectations, your goals, whatever you want to use the
seminar to explore. Use this autobiographical statement to situate your own experiences within
the course goals.
The final self-assessment essay should also consist of 1-2 typed, single-spaced pages.
This essay might be a narrative about your overall intellectual experience in this seminar—why
you took it, what problems and challenges it presented to you along the way, and how you
addressed them. Or it might focus specifically on your writing for the course, what you learned
from generating the particular texts that you produced, what you now understand to be your
strengths and weaknesses as a scholar. Or it might enumerate critical insights you gained into the
nature and impact of the profession as a result of specific course assignments. This essay ideally
reflects on and evaluates your overall intellectual growth in the seminar.
Occasional Critical Reading Notebook (and random oral presentations): 30% of final grade.
These four short analyses should address a recent assigned course reading. Each Notebook
should be brought to the class session in which the assigned text it addresses will be discussed.
(Feel free to refer to texts and ideas discussed in previous class sessions as well.) Select the
topics for your entries in accordance with your personal scholarly interests, as a chief purpose of
the Notebook assignment is to provide you an opportunity to tailor class discussions to your own
interests. Notebook entries are required on assigned dates; however, you may petition for
different dates (except Mar 31). A portfolio of the original (i.e., marked by Prof.) four Notebook
entries will receive one grade at the end of the term.
Leadership of class discussion with position paper (20% of final grade), oral presentation, and
bibliography of related texts. Each student will sign up to lead a one-hour discussion of assigned
course readings (at least once per term). Besides guiding seminar group through one or more
assigned readings, on the selected date, you will also provide group with a short argumentative
essay (4-6 pages, double-spaced) on one of the readings. The bibliography should list at least six
resources that you consulted to develop your argument, and items should be listed alphabetically
in the current MLA style. The position paper cannot double as a Notebook entry.
As with any academic writing, your position paper should include a brief, specific title
that suggests and anticipates the argument beneath it. The paper should be distributed by noon on
the Friday before the class session in which the paper is to be discussed. You are responsible for
ensuring that each group member receives a copy of your work; electronic distribution is
acceptable.
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Symposium project: 30% of final grade. The key purpose of the symposium assignment is to
enrich your professionalization and to help ensure that you leave the course with a manuscript
that could serve as the foundation of a PhD program requirement and/ or scholarly publication
you develop in the future. We will move through the various stages of the development of a
formal academic presentation: generating a topic, preparing an original paper proposal with
hypothesis, drafting the paper, and presenting a revised version to the seminar group.
Book review (or review of reviews) of a recently published scholarly book on African Americans
and religion or black masculinity: 20% of final grade. This assignment requires you to get
approval of a recent book for review, or to collect, collate, and comment on 4-6 reviews of a
recent scholarly book-length analysis of religious practice(s) by African Americans; a recent
edition, reissue, or Internet archive of a 19th-century text regarding blacks and religion; or a
recent scholarly monograph or collection of essays on blacks and religion. You will need to have
enough familiarity with your chosen primary text to assess the validity of the judgments made in
each review. Your review should argue a single, narrowly-conceived thesis in up to 10 doublespaced pages. A clean copy of each review that you assess should be appended to your own
work, if you take the reviews option.
This course will undoubtedly challenge many of your values, attitudes, beliefs, and ideas.
You will need not only to come to class open-mindedly, but you will also need to approach your
reading assignments open-mindedly. I expect you to raise questions in class and to see me in my
office hours for further help if needed. It is your responsibility to contact me with any problems
or issues you feel are getting in the way of your learning.
Predictably, many of the course readings deal with controversial issues that may prove difficult
to discuss: racism, sadism, xenophobia, physical atrocities, and sexual violence. At alternate
points in the course, each of us will feel upset, discouraged, angry, distraught, proud, relieved,
ashamed, and guilty about issues raised in discussion and course texts. If we are brave enough,
we will engage in difficult, transformative discussions. Let me highlight one issue in particular
that the class will encounter: the word nigger, which appears in many course readings. Given
both the intense cultural weight and the sociopolitical history of this epithet, please refrain from
using it unless you are reading aloud from a course text. Obviously, our guiding principle is to
respect each other at all times.
Required texts:
Baker, Kyle. The Confessions of Nat Turner (2005)
Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain (1952, 2005)
Byrd, Rudolph, and B. Guy-Sheftall, eds. Traps: African American Men on Gender and
Sexuality (2001)
Hinks, Peter, ed. David Walker’s Appeal (1829, 2006)
Kirk, John, ed. Martin Luther King Jr. & the Civil Rights Movement (2007)
Lee, Shayne. America’s New Preacher: T. D. Jakes (2005)
Melish, Joanne Pope, ed. The Life of William J. Brown of Providence, R. I. (1883, 2006)
Griffith, R. M. and B. D. Savage, eds. Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge,
Power, and Performance (2006)
Wallace, Maurice. Constructing the Black Masculine:
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Often I will email you with updated assignments, downloaded resources, or Internet links. Please
plan to check your UTSA email account regularly.
Please silence cell phone ringers before each class session. Please do not eat in class except
during announced breaks.
Course Calendar. Always subject to change. Additional readings will probably be assigned
during the semester. Assigned readings should be completed before each class period.
Tu Jan 13
Introductions.
Tu Jan 27. DUE: Intellectual Autobiography.
Theories of race, gender, and piety]
 Traps introduction
 Wallace introduction and Chap 1
 Seeman, “'Justise Must Take Plase': Three African Americans Speak of Religion in
Eighteenth-Century New England.” William and Mary Quarterly 56 (1999): 395-416.
 Gates, H. L. “James Gronniosaw and the Trope of the Talking Book.” 1986. African
American Autobiography. Ed. W. L. Andrews. 8-25.
 Cedrick May, “John Marrant and the narrative construction of an early black Methodist
evangelical” (African American Review Winter 2004)
W Jan 28
Last day to meet individually with Prof Moody.
Tu Feb 3
Origins of Afro-Protestantism Christy to lead discussion
 Rhondaa Thomas, “Exodus and colonization: charting the journey in the journals of
Daniel Coker, a descendant of Africa” (AAR Fall 2007)
 Prince Hall (c. 1780, in Wallace, Chap 2)
 Life of … John Jea (c. 1817, available at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/jeajohn/menu.html )
 Cf. black holy woman: Phillis Wheatley (1773)
Tu Feb 10. DUE: Critical Reading Notebook 1. [E. Ranft to lead discussion
Early 19th-century black holy men
 David Walker’s Appeal (1829)
 Confessions of Nat Turner, by Thomas Gray (1831, available at
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/menu.html )
 Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2002 film, dir. Charles Burnett)
 Cf. black holy woman: Productions of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart (1835)
Th-Fr, Feb 12-13
Brackenridge Lectures: Werner Sollors
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Tu Feb 17
Black Piety & Black Masculinity in Antebellum America Kristina to lead discussion
 Introductions to God Struck Me Dead
 Frederick Douglass (Traps)
 M. Delany (Wallace, Chap 2)
 Henry Box Brown (Ernest article in AAR)
 J. D. Green (Pierce essay)
Tu Feb 24. DUE: Critical Reading Notebook 2. Margaret to lead discussion
Race, Gender, Slavery, and Christianity
 W. Best chapter in Griffith and Savage, eds.
 Cf. Sojourner Truth (via Ernest in AL)
 Cf. Harriet Jacobs (and the rejection of Christianity in Incidents)
Tu Mar 3. DUE: Last day to get approval on selected topic for Symposium Project.
 Women’s History Month event: Sankofa (1993 film); discussion co-facilitated by J.
Moody and Prof. Rhonda Gonzales
 Cf. Christian violence and slavery (Ferguson in AL)
Tu Mar 10: Spring Break
Tu Mar 17. DUE: Critical Reading Notebook 3.
Piety and Masculinity in post-Civil War America
 The Life of William J. Brown
 A. Crummel (Traps)
 Du Bois (and Lemons, in Traps)
 John Giggie, “Race and the Selling of God”
Fr Mar 20
COLFA Research Conference
M Mar 23
Dr. Jualynne Dodson, lecture on Afro-Cuban women’s religion (11 am)
Tu Mar 24. DUE: Proposal with hypothesis (150 words) for Symposium Project.
Pre-Civil Rights Afro-Protestantism & Queer Sexuality
 Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1952)
 James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (1989 film)
Tu Mar 31. DUE: Critical Reading Notebook 4 (based on your selection of two essays in Kirk).
Civil Rights, Spirituality, Sexuality, and Gender
 Rustin (in Traps)
 Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2002 film)
 Sisters of Selma (2007 film)
 MLK, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, ed. J. A. Kirk
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Fr Apr 3
BFSA Spring Symposium: The Obama Presidency
Tu Apr 7. DUE: Preliminary bibliography for Symposium Project.
Dr. Vivyan Adair, “Poverty, Women, and the Promise of Higher Education” (4-7 pm)
Tu Apr 14. DUE: Book review/ review of reviews.
Post-Black Righteous Riches
 America’s New Preacher: T. D. Jakes, by Shayne Lee)
 Woman, Thou Art Loosed (2004 film, screenplay by Jakes)
 NYT review of Not Easily Broken (2008, based on novel by Jakes)
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/movies/09brok.html
Fr Apr 17
English Graduate Student Conference
Tu Apr 21. DUE: First draft of Symposium Project.
Progressive black masculinities?
 Nat Turner, by Kyle Baker
Tu Apr 28
 Course evaluations
 “Heretics: Carleton Pierce” (This American Life)
(http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=304 )
 Jeremiah Wright vs. Barack Obama; Open Letter (5 Nov 2008) to Barack Obama from
Alice Walker; You-Tube clip (10 min) in which Obama and “50 cent” each discuss black
masculinity and his own self-representation within hegemonic culture; TourA blog (5
Nov 2008), “Can We Still Say 'Fuck Whitey' If the President Is Black?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-05/the-end-of-fuck-whitey-1/
Tu May 5. DUE: Revised version of Symposium Project.
Seminar Symposium & Celebration
Fr May 8
DUE: Final Self-Assessment.
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