ENGL 542 - Classics of African American Literature

Credit(s): 3
Students in this course will study a range of works of African-American literature in light of Toni Morrison’s statement that “my parallel is always the music because all of the strategies of the art are there.” The course will involve considerations of how in Richard Powell’s words the blues provides “much contemporary literature, theater, dance, and visual arts with the necessary element for defining these various art forms as intrinsically African American.” Informed by the concept that music is the trope that best illuminates much African-American writing, the course will study selections that could include modern classics (e.g. writings by Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, or Langston Hughes) as well as contemporary classics (e.g. writings by John Wideman, Toni Morrison, August Wilson, Maya Angelou, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, or Tayari Jones).