Summer 2007

E f376R • African American Literature Through the Harlem Renaissance

Course Description

This course is an introduction to select African-American literature--slave narratives, poetry, novels, essays--from slavery through the Harlem Renaissance. The course historicizes issues pertinent to the development of an African-American literary tradition, such as critical race theory, double consciousness or the struggle for self-identity, class conflict, racism, and sexism. It thematizes these issues through stylistic forms, including the oral vernacular tradition, blues ideology, and folk culture.

Grading Policy

Essay exam I (In-class) 25%
Essay exam II (In-class) 25%
Critical essay (four pages; typed; double-spaced) 25%
Reading quizzes/group presentations/class participation 25%

Regular attendance is required. More than four absences will be sufficient grounds for failure in the course. The four allowed absences will include illness, deaths of relatives, and other emergencies. Upon your fifth absence, you will be notified of your failure of the course, and you need not return to class. If you are more than five minutes late or leave before class ends (without permission), you will be counted absent for that class. You are responsible for all work covered in your absence.

Absolutely no make-ups for quizzes; however, your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. Please read the entire assignment by the first day of class discussion for that work.

GRADING SCALE:
A (94-95); A- (90-93); B+ (87-89); B (84-86); B- (80-83); C+ (77-79); C (74-76); C- (70-73); D+ (67-69); D (64-66); D- (61-63); F (0-60).

Texts

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Classic Slave Narratives
Phillis Wheatley, The Poems of Phillis Wheatley
Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition
James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Course pack (select readings from the Harlem Renaissance), Speedway on Dobie.

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