Arts, Sciences, and Engineering African & African-American Studies
Course Section Listing Course Course Title Term Credits Status
COURSE_SECTION-3-164642 AAAS 156-1 Intro to African-American Literature Spring 2024 4.0 Open
Schedule:
Day Begin End Location Start Date End Date
MW 1025 AM 1140 AM Bausch & Lomb Room 315 01/17/2024 05/11/2024
Enrollment: Enrolled     
20 		Capacity     
25
Co-Located: AAAS 156-1, ENGL 116-1 (P), GSWS 155-1
Instructors: Jeffrey Tucker
Delivery Mode: In-Person
Description: This course surveys African American literature of a variety of genres—poetry, drama, autobiography, fiction, and non-fiction—with a focus on the 18th and 19th Centuries. The course interprets this tradition not only as the production of American writers of African descent, but also as a set works that display formal characteristics associated with black cultural traditions. Discussion topics include the meanings of race, the construction of black identity, and literature as historical document. Special attention will be paid to approaching literary texts from a variety of critical perspectives. Featured writers include Phillis Wheatley, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Harriet W. Wilson, Charles W. Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and more. Course requirements include two formal writing assignments, bi-weekly reading responses, and class participation.
Offered: Fall Spring Summer
Course Section Listing Course Course Title Term Credits Status
COURSE_SECTION-3-146330 AAAS 156-1 Intro to African-American Literature Spring 2023 4.0 Open
Schedule:
Day Begin End Location Start Date End Date
MW 1025 AM 1140 AM Bausch & Lomb Room 315 01/11/2023 05/06/2023
Enrollment: Enrolled     
9 		Capacity     
No Cap
Co-Located: AAAS 156-1, ENGL 116-1 (P), GSWS 155-1
Instructors: Lamia Alafaireet
Delivery Mode: In-Person
Description: This course surveys African American literature of various genres—fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography—from the late-nineteenth century to the present. As a class, we will work together to identify persistent themes in African American literature and investigate continuities and evolutions in the ways African American writers have approached those themes across time, space, and literary movements. Along the way, students can expect to learn how to analyze literary texts in terms of both form and content.

While this course is grounded in literature, students will have regular opportunities to place course texts in interdisciplinary contexts, drawing connections to Black Lives Matter, climate justice, critical race theory, etc. Featured authors may include Frederick Douglass, Angelina Weld Grimké, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison, and Ross Gay.
Offered: Fall Spring Summer