English 152E
(What is) African American Literature
Preliminary syllabus
Professor Adena Spingarn
Winter Quarter 2014
Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:15-3:05pm
Building 160, Room 314
What is African American literature? This course is both an introduction to some of the great works
of black literary expression and an examination of this category. What aesthetic traditions define
African American literature, and how does it relate to American literature as a whole? Is African
American literature inherently political? Where does this literary tradition start and where does it (or
does it) end? Who can write it and who can’t? How have African American writers asked and
answered these questions? In this course we will examine the formal and rhetorical strategies that
figure most prominently in this literary tradition. We will also investigate the historical circumstances
(including slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and Jim Crow) that have shaped—and been
shaped by—this body of literature. Topics to be addressed in this course include canon formation,
negotiations between fiction and history, sectional tensions (between North and South), gender
politics, and folk culture.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1:
Monday, January 6: Introduction
Wednesday, January 8
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Preface + Ch. 1
Week 2:
Monday, January 13
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Ch. 2 – end
Wednesday, January 15
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), first half
Week 3:
*Diagnostic assignment due – no posts required this week.
NO CLASS Monday, January 20 (MLK Jr. Day)
Wednesday, January 22
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), second half
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), first third
Week 4:
Monday, January 27
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), second third
Wednesday, January 29
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), last third of book
Week 5:
Monday, February 3
Joel Chandler Harris, “The Wonderful Tar Baby Story” (1880)
Charles Chesnutt, “The Goophered Grapevine” (1887)
Wednesday, February 5
W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk (1903): “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” “Of the
Coming of John”
Week 6:
* Literary Paper due this week
Monday, February 10
James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)
Wednesday, February 12
W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk (1903): “The Sorrow Songs”
Songs: “Life Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Steal Away to Jesus”
Week 7:
NO CLASS Monday, February 17 (President’s Day)
Wednesday, February 19
Alain Locke, “The New Negro” (1925)
Claude McKay, “If We Must Die” (1919), “Africa,” “America” (1921)
Sterling Brown, “Memphis Blues,” “Southern Road,” “Slim Greer” (1931)
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1921), “The Negro Artist and the Racial
Mountain” (1926)
Week 8:
Monday, February 24
Zora Neale Hurston, “Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934)
Richard Wright, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” (1937), “Blueprint for Negro Writing”
(1937)
Wednesday, February 26
Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha (1953); “kitchenette building,” “The Sundays of Satin-Legs
Smith” (1945), “We Real Cool” (1960)
Week 9:
Monday, March 3
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952), first third
Wednesday, March 5
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952), second third
Week 10:
Monday, March 10
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952), last third
Wednesday, March 12
August Wilson, The Piano Lesson (1990)
* Final assignment due Thursday, March 20
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Attendance and participation (15%)
Weekly informal writing (15%)- Each week, 250-300 words should be posted on Coursework by
10pm the day before class. These will not be individually graded but you will receive feedback on
them, and they will count toward your participation grade.
Diagnostic assignment (close reading) (15%) – 2-3 pages. (Details distributed in class.)
Literary paper (20%) 4-5 pages. (Details distributed in class.)
Final (25%) – Writing assignment of 7-8 pages. (Details distributed in class.)