ENGL 5232U - Course Overview

A study of images, issues, and themes in African-American literature through an examination of works by such writers as Douglass, Washington, Chesnutt, Hughes, Wright, Baldwin, and Morrison.

Texts: Butler, Kindred, Beacon, 1988; Chesnutt, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line, William Andrews, ed., Penguin Classics, 2000; Douglass, The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader, William Andrews, ed., Oxford, 1997; Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Vintage Books, 1995; Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, HarperCollins, 1999; Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Signet Classic, 2000; Larsen, Quicksand and Passing, Rutgers, 1986; Morrison, Song of Solomon, Reissue ed., Plume, 1987; Wright, Native Son, HarperCollins, 1989.

Course Overview

Introduction

This course offers an overview of African-American literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day through a detailed study of nine important African-American writers. For the English major, the course often provides knowledge of authors and their works not encountered in any other class, even in this day of literary canon expansion. Students contemplating public school teaching careers will become familiar with material useful in the classroom. Anyone who completes the course will have read works of the highest literary quality and will also learn much about racial and cultural issues lying at the heart of American life and history.

One can argue that slavery is the central experience in African-American history, the nightmare that has haunted the imaginations of black writers from the beginning up to this day. Accordingly, we will find Milkman Dead, the protagonist of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977), searching into his family history—a history rooted in slavery—for the meaning of his own life, just as Frederick Douglass, in 1845, wrote his Narrative as a way of defining himself as a free man, not someone else’s property. Between Douglass and Morrison the student will read seven other authors, all of whom deal directly or indirectly with the experience of slavery and its terrible legacy of racial oppression.

African-American literature does not concentrate solely, however, on the horrors of slavery and ongoing discrimination. True, the often harsh and unjust realities of black life in America find painful expression in African-American literature; nevertheless, black writers also deal with the human experience in all its variety and complexity, with men and women in all their "beauty, dread, [and] power," as James Baldwin eloquently expresses it. A distinguishing mark of much of this literature lies in the heightened difficulty of its characters’ struggle to create meaningful lives for themselves, a struggle made more arduous because of institutionalized violence, discrimination, and injustice. Yet African-American writers also celebrate the rich cultural traditions and practices of a people whose heritage flows from two continents, two distinct ways of life.

More than some other writers, African-American authors write with a sense of urgency, knowing the importance of their message. Sometimes their purpose is overt: both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs wrote autobiographies to alert their readers to the evils of slavery and to win support for the abolitionist cause. In Native Son, Richard Wright advocates no specific plan of social action, but the novel quivers with a need to awaken white Americans to horrific conditions in their inner cities that help create individuals like Bigger Thomas, its desperate anti-hero. Given their sense of mission to inform their readers of social problems or to advocate change, African-American writers are keenly attuned to their audience’s receptivity and prejudices. Finding a voice and a way to be heard are problems confronting every author, but among black writers such as Harriet Jacobs, Charles Chesnutt, and Richard Wright, the issue is especially pressing.

The student of African-American literature is rewarded in his or her study with knowledge of the sweep of African-American history, an understanding of black Americans’ linguistic, religious, and cultural traditions, and a sense of the triumph of black life in this country, a victory won in the face of daunting odds. This is a rich literature, deeply felt, powerfully told, and adventurously innovative. Because of the African-American writer’s sense of urgency in communicating the message, this literature gives the reader a heightened sense of being directly addressed; often the text seems to hit the reader squarely between the eyes and say, "I’m talking to you." To study African-American literature is to be sometimes saddened, often angered, frequently shocked, and many times shamed, but always to be engaged by writing that is persistently, tenaciously alive.

Although previous knowledge of African-American history is not required for successful completion of this course (in fact, the course will provide the student with much historical information), some familiarity with black history and culture would undoubtedly benefit the student. One need not be an English major to succeed in the course; anyone who finds the material interesting, enjoys reading, and writes reasonably well should be able to do well.

Textbooks and Instructional Materials

The course consists of nine lessons, each one centering on a single text, which the student must (with one exception) read in full in order to be able to complete the lesson. I have chosen full-length works instead of a literature anthology for several reasons:

1. The works are superb and deserve to be read in full (anthologies by their nature must focus heavily on shorter works and excerpts from long ones).

2. Longer works tend to make more of a lasting impact on students and are thus better remembered.

3. Independent study gives the student the luxury of time to read long works that cannot be fit into regular university terms.

4. A small number of thematically and stylistically representative works can provide as excellent an overview of a body of literature as many shorter works can.

I have chosen the texts with care. They cover 132 years of African-American literature by male and female writers and include autobiography, poetry, and novels. These works represent varied historical and literary periods, including antebellum period, the turn of the century (a tragic era referred to by some as the "nadir" of black experience), the Harlem Renaissance, the long and varied career of Langston Hughes, African-American naturalism, modernism, and "supernatural realism."

I have great admiration for all of these works; I have taught them all, have published on Douglass, and delivered a paper on Chesnutt. The strengths of these works for the course are listed above. If they possess a weakness, it is only that any selection of particular course materials necessitates omission of other worthy works. Accordingly, I suggest a supplementary reading list for students with further interest in African-American literature.

There are some good anthologies available; however, the newly published Norton Anthology of African-American Literature (Gates and McKay, eds., Norton 1997) is unsurpassed for sheer completeness and excellence of its editorial introductions to African-American literary periods and individual authors.

Other African-American writers whose full-length works deserve attention are Booker T. Washington, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Ernest Gaines, and Alice Walker. Important African-American poets include Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and Rita Dove. Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson have written plays of great importance and quality.

To get the most out of the reading, I suggest that you follow these suggestions:

1. Before beginning the text, read any materials furnished by an editor. I have chosen some of the editions of individual works because they include useful introductory sections.

2. Learn what you can about the author; the first question of most lessons asks you to write a brief biographical sketch. I think that knowing something about a writer’s life and times can provide real insight into his or her work.

3. Read carefully the Lesson Objectives, Discussion, and Written Assignment questions before you begin to read the main text. These sections will help you understand my approach to the work, which themes I find important, and in some cases which specific passages will require particularly close attention.

Grading and Final Examination

Each of the nine lessons is worth ten percent of your final course grade; the final exam is also worth ten percent of the grade.

Each lesson requires students to supply written answers to several questions. I cannot specify the length of such answers; however, most questions require more than a one-paragraph response. If you find yourself writing pages and pages for each answer, then you are probably doing too much. Answers should display your best, most polished style and grammar of quality equal to that expected in upper-division courses. I grade each lesson holistically, one grade for the entire completed lesson. Factual correctness in answers counts, as does thoughtfulness, for many questions require you to offer your own interpretations and insights. Serious errors of grammar, usage, and punctuation can lower a grade, sometimes dramatically. This is unfortunate when it occurs, but I expect a high standard of writing.

The final exam consists of three general discussion questions designed to test your ability to draw conclusions about and make connections among the works you have read. Many individual lessons, by the way, will ask the same kinds of questions, especially inviting you to compare and contrast themes, points of view, or styles. To prepare for the final exam, read all of the texts carefully, perhaps underlining significant passages (if you own the book!) or making notes for yourself. The exam questions, although general, will ask for specific examples to support and illustrate your points. Vague generalizations unsupported by specifics make for unconvincing answers.

Here are two sample questions, similar to those you will encounter on the final exam:

1. Defend or attack this thesis, using at least three of the works you’ve read for this class: "Slavery and its legacy are the overriding issues in the works of African-American authors."

2. Using at least three authors you have read in the course, show how the quest for individual identity is a significant theme in African-American autobiography and fiction.

You must pass the final to pass the course, regardless of grades earned on lessons. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by Independent Study policies and procedures. See your Student Handbook for detailed information.