ENG 229-01 - The Tradition of African American Literature (Spring)

4 credits (Spring)

A survey of African American literature from its beginnings to the present, this course will prompt you to consider: What is African American literature? Is it, as Kenneth Warren asserts in What Was African American Literature, “of rather recent vintage” or is the “tradition” as scholars are apt to call it, characterized by particular motifs, modalities, and metaphors? Traditions in African American Literature will use Warren’s slim yet substantial text to trace the literary legacy contemporary black writers have inherited/write to/write against and map the Afro-futurist trajectories of black writers in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. An exciting and dynamic class filled with passionate debate, majors and non-majors alike will benefit from a wide range of assignments geared toward fostering clear writing, persuasive speaking, and critical thinking.

Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or any course in the study of literature in another language department.
Instructor: Benjamin