African American Literature

Course Number:

ENG 257

Transcript Title:

African American Literature

Created:

Aug 10, 2022

Updated:

Jul 11, 2023

Total Credits:

4

Lecture Hours:

40

Lecture / Lab Hours:

0

Lab Hours:

0

Satisfies Cultural Literacy requirement:

Yes

Satisfies General Education requirement:

Yes

Grading Options

A-F, P/NP, Audit

Default Grading Options

A-F

Repeats available for credit:

0

Alignment with Institutional Learning Outcomes

Major

1. Communicate effectively using appropriate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. (Communication)

Major

2. Creatively solve problems by using relevant methods of research, personal reflection, reasoning, and evaluation of information. (Critical thinking and Problem-Solving)

Not Addressed

3. Extract, interpret, evaluate, communicate, and apply quantitative information and methods to solve problems, evaluate claims, and support decisions in their academic, professional and private lives. (Quantitative Literacy)

Major

4. Use an understanding of cultural differences to constructively address issues that arise in the workplace and community. (Cultural Awareness)

Major

5. Recognize the consequences of human activity upon our social and natural world. (Community and Environmental Responsibility)

To establish an intentional learning environment, Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) require a clear definition of instructional strategies, evidence of recurrent instruction, and employment of several assessment modes.

Major Designation

1. The outcome is addressed recurrently in the curriculum, regularly enough to establish a thorough understanding.
2. Students can demonstrate and are assessed on a thorough understanding of the outcome.
   • The course includes at least one assignment that can be assessed by applying the appropriate CLO rubric.

Minor Designation

1. The outcome is addressed adequately in the curriculum, establishing fundamental understanding.
2. Students can demonstrate and are assessed on a fundamental understanding of the outcome.
   • The course includes at least one assignment that can be assessed by applying the appropriate CLO rubric.

Suggested Outcome Assessment Strategies

Self-assessed discussion forums, mini-essays, and one final project (essay, video, digital story).

Course Activities and Design

The determination of teaching strategies used in the delivery of outcomes is generally left to the discretion of the instructor. Here are some strategies that you might consider when designing your course: lecture, small group/forum discussion, flipped classroom, dyads, oral presentation, role play, simulation scenarios, group projects, service learning projects, hands-on lab, peer review/workshops, cooperative learning (jigsaw, fishbowl), inquiry based instruction, differentiated instruction (learning centers), graphic organizers, etc.

Course Content

Outcome #1: Analyze the importance of self-documentation in African American literature as a means to challenge stereotypes and caricatures.

• Read and analyze literary works by African American writers
• Read and analyze analytical and critical works by African American writers
• Texts include significant moments in the development of the Black aesthetic such as:
  • labor and conditions under slave bondage
  • abolition
  • reconstructing the Black identity in the post-Emancipation Era
  • The Great Migration
  • the Harlem Renaissance

Outcome #2: Explain how various perceptions of identity shape African American literature and scholarship.

• Careful reading and analysis of history of discrimination against Black Americans in the US
  • Generational impacts of inequalities created by enslavement, redlining, and other structured forms of marginalization in the U.S.
  • Political motivations
  • Stereotypes and caricatures
• Explore interrelating themes and motifs in African American literature through careful reading, discussion, regular writing prompts, close reading analysis, and/or creative projects:
  • racial passing
  • socioeconomic mobility
  • protest against racist violence

Outcome #3: Examine the intersection of class, history, politics, gender, and sexuality in African American literature and apply that knowledge to real world issues impacting contemporary populations. 

• The African American experience through social, historical, and cultural contexts.
• How historical and political events impact African American communities and literature.
• How historical, social, and political issues are reflected in contemporary African American literature
• How African American literature reflects the ongoing activism and cultural flourishing of contemporary communities.

Outcome #4: Identify and trace the distinctive literary forms--oral stories, fairy tales, fables, proverbs, poetry-- and/or recurring themes of African American literature from historical through contemporary texts.

• Define a variety of literary forms and provide examples of these forms using study of model texts.
• How literary forms relate to historical and cultural moments in African American literature.
• Interpreting how authors’ variations of various forms relate to theme, motif, and purpose.

Outcome #5: Analyze a text through close critical reading and offer interpretation orally, digitally, and/or in writing, using and citing textual evidence in support of a thesis.

• Guide students’ practice of close reading to accomplish interpretative goals including: understanding a work’s key ideas, identifying how a work’s craft and structure reinforce its themes, and recognizing how a work connects to others.
• Through lecture and hands-on instruction, teach students “tracking” methods to help them achieve a rich understanding of the texts

• Introduce students to the OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab as a resource to help them with all aspects of essay writing including thesis and content generation, citation, organization, and proper formatting: https://owl.english.purdue.edu

Suggested Texts and Materials

Potential anthologies:

• The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (2014). Ed. Henry Louise Gates.
• The Wiley-Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature(2014).  Ed. Gene Andrew Jarrett.
• The Harlem Renaissance: A Brief History with Documents(2007). Ed. Jeffrey B. Ferguson
• The Classic Slave Narratives(2012). Ed. Henry Louise Gates.

Potential writers (this list is by no means exhaustive):

• William Wells Brown
• Frederick Douglass
• Olaudah Equiano
• Harriet Jacobs
• Phillis Wheatley
• Harriet Wilson
• Booker T. Washington
• Charles Chesnutt
• Pauline Hopkins
• Ida B. Wells
• W.E.B Du Bois
• Marcus Garvey
• Claude McKay
• Zora Neale Hurston
• Nella Larsen
• Langston Hughes
• Countee Cullen
• Helene Johnson
• James Baldwin
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Ralph Ellison
• Lorraine Hansberry
• Richard Wright
• Ann Petry
• Melvin B. Tolson
• Margaret Walker
• Maya Angelou
• Audre Lorde
• Maya Angelou
• Toni Cade Bambara
• Lucille Cliffton
• Nikki Giovanni
• June Jordan
• Toni Morrison
• Sonja Sanchez
• Elizabeth Alexander
• Octavia Butler
• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Rita Dove
• Jericho Brown
• NK Jemison
• Essex Hemphill
• Yusef Komunyakka
• Harryette Mullen
• Gloria Naylor
• Hanif Abdurraqib
• Eve Ewing
• Claudia Rankine
• Sonia Sanchez
• Patricia Smith
• Danez Smith
• Tracy K. Smith
• Natasha Trethewey
• Colson Whitehead
• August Wilson
• Kevin Young