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Examining the Harlem Renaissance
English 470: Topics in 20thCentury American Literature
Required Texts:
Andrews, William L. Classic Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance
Larsen, Nella. Passing
Thurman, Wallace. The Blacker the Berry
Course Packet
Recommended Texts:
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem was in Vogue
Hacker, Diane. A Writers Reference
Course Overview: This course will study the literature, politics, music, and art of the Harlem
Renaissance--roughly a period from 1915-1940. This was a time when African American writers, artists,
philosophers, activists, and musicians, congregating in New York City’s Harlem, sought to define
African American culture on their own terms. The era has most frequently been thought of as a 1920sonly phenomenon, and many have suggested that it was less a “renaissance” than a first flowering of a
collective artistic spirit. We will energetically take on this debate, examining the roots of the movement
and critically reading Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Nella
Larsen, and others.
Assignment & Reading Schedule
(Subject to change)
Thursday
8/28
Introduction/ “Harlem”
Tuesday
Thursday
9/2
9/4
The Souls of Black Folk (excerpt)/ Up From Slavery (excerpt), CP
“The New Negro”/ “Double Task of Negro Womanhood”/ “On Being
Young, a Woman and Colored”, CP
Tuesday
Thursday
9/9
9/11
“I Too Sing America”, “Mother to Son” and “Negro Speaks of Rivers”, CP
Quicksand, Chapters 1 -9
Tuesday
Thursday
9/16
9/18
Quicksand, Chapters 10 -18
Quicksand, Chapters 19 -end
Tuesday
Thursday
9/23
9/25
The Blacker the Berry, Part 1 and 2
The Blacker the Berry, Part 3
Tuesday
Thursday
9/30
10/2
The Blacker the Berry, Part 4 and 5
Essay #1 due
“The White House”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “Weary Blues”
Tuesday
Thursday
10/7
10/9
Jazz (film)
Music of the Harlem Renaissance
Tuesday
10/14
Fall Break
Thursday
10/16
Home to Harlem, Chapters I - VI
Essay proposal due
2
Tuesday
Thursday
10/21
10/23
Home to Harlem, Chapters VII - XI
Home to Harlem, Chapters XII - XV
Tuesday
Thursday
10/28
10/30
Home to Harlem, Chapters XVI - end
“Sweat”/ “Rejuvenation Through Joy”, CP
Tuesday
Thursday
11/4
11/6
“Criteria of Negro Art”, “Negro/ Artist and the Racial Mountain”, CP
Against the Odds (film)
Annotated Bibliography due
Tuesday
Thursday
11/11
11/13
“Passing”
Passing, Part I
Tuesday
Thursday
11/18
11/20
Passing, Part II and III
Passing
Tuesday
11/25
No Class
Tuesday
Thursday
12/2
12/4
“A Jam of a Party”, When Harlem was in Vogue, CP
“The Fall of the Manor”, When Harlem was in Vogue, CP
Tuesday
12/9
Final Thoughts
Thursday
11/27-
Essay #2 due
Thanksgiving
Final Essay due