Department of English > Courses
Course Details
| Fall 2011 | ENGL 381.0001 | TTH | 11:00 - 12:15 | DU 270 | Tim Ryan | |
Title: AMERICAN ETHNIC LITERATURECourse Description: Study of one ethnic tradition in American literature or a combination of two or more traditions, such as Black American literature, Latino literature, Native American literature, and Jewish literature.PRQ: | ||||||
| Detailed Course Description:African American Literature C. African American Literature. Historical survey of the fiction, drama, poetry, and prose of African American writers such as Wheatley, Douglass, Chesnutt, Cullen, Hughes, Baldwin, and Morrison. In this course, we will examine fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography, and music by African American artists ranging from the fugitive slave narratives of the nineteenth century through the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s to 21st-Century fiction. We will also analyze two films that are concerned with African American characters and themes. | ||||||
| Course Requirements:Requirements include regular short papers and two exams (a midterm and final). Please note: active and regular participation in class discussion is absolutely crucial to this course and will make up a significant proportion of the final grade. Please contact the instructor if you have any questions about the course or require any additional details: tryan@niu.edu | ||||||
| Required Texts:Assigned Books: Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. (1845); Zora Neale Hurston. Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934); Octavia E. Butler. Kindred (1979); August Wilson. The Piano Lesson (1987); Percival Everett. Erasure (2001). Additional short readings will be available as electronic reserves on Blackboard, including: -- Poems by Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen. -- Short stories by Charles Chesnutt, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, and Z.Z. Packer. -- Songs by Charley Patton and Curtis Mayfield. Assigned Films: Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (dir. Fred Waller, 1935); The Brother from Another Planet (dir. John Sayles, 1984). | ||||||
| Default Webboard Location: http://webboard.engl.niu.edu/default.asp?boardid=0 WebSite not set. Please contact Instructor for information. |
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