Professor: Dr. Bev Hogue
Office: 216-A Thomas Hall
Office Hours: MW 10 a.m. to noon and 3 to 4 p.m.; TTH 2 to 4 p.m.; F 10 a.m. to noon
Other hours available by appointment
e-mail: hogueb@marietta.edu
office telephone: x4657
website: www.marietta.edu/~hogueb
class e-mail list: 2008_FL_ENGL_324_01@marietta.edu
Course Description: Students will survey literature produced by African-American authors in order to develop a more complete understanding of American culture and literary movements, develop skills in analysis and interpretation, and enhance writing skills. Further, the class will introduce students to various theoretical approaches to understanding African-American literature.
General Education: This course fulfills the Diversity and Writing Proficiency general education requirements. In order to take this class, students must have passed WRIT 101 with at least a C-.
Course Objectives: At the conclusion of the course, students should
Expectations: This course depends upon class participation; therefore, students should:
Required Texts
Suzan-Lori Parks, The America Play and Other Works, Theater Communications Group;
ISBN 978-1559360920
Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days, Anchor; ISBN 978-0385498203
Nellie Y. McKay and Henry Louis Gates, ed., The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Norton; ISBN 978-0393977783
Evaluation
Midterm exam 100 points
Final exam 100 points
Theory discussions 100 points
Three short analysis essays 300 points
Long paper 100 points
Grading Scale
A = 93-100 A- = 90-92 B+ = 88-89 B = 83-87 B- = 80-82
C+ = 78-79 C = 73-77 C- = 70-72 D+ = 68-69 D = 63-67 D- = 60-62
The A+ grade does not affect gpa and will be given only for extraordinary work.
Each exam may consist of a combination of objective and essay questions.
One objective of any 300-level literature class is to introduce students to a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of literature. We will accomplish this by means of a series of discussions of theoretical articles. The theory discussions will require two types of responses from you. At some point during the semester, you will be assigned a particular theoretical essay, and you will write a brief summary to distribute electronically to your classmates. This summary is worth 60 points. You will earn the remaining 40 points by participating in discussions about theoretical articles summarized by your classmates. (See assignment sheet for complete details.)
For each analysis essay, you will write a brief but cogent essay responding to a particular question related to reading assignments. These papers should focus on analyzing the texts under discussion and should not include outside sources. You will receive a list of the analysis essay questions and you may choose any three of them, as long as you submit at least two papers before midterm.
For the long paper, you will select one of the authors on the reading list and explore that author’s work in greater depth, which will require reading some additional works by that author and becoming familiar with the current state of scholarship. You may wish to expand on the ideas in one of your short papers.
All written work must be typed/word processed, double-spaced, in black ink on white paper, with attention paid to spelling, grammar, and style. Late work will not be accepted except in rare unavoidable cases. Students are expected to produce original work for this course; papers written for other courses here or elsewhere are not acceptable.
Revision option: You may choose to revise any short paper and resubmit it for further consideration; however, your grade on that paper will not be increased by more than one letter-grade, and revising a paper does not guarantee that it will qualify for an improved grade. Revised essays must be turned in no later than one week following the return of the grade paper, and they must be accompanied by the original graded paper and rubric.
Plagiarism occurs when a student represents someone else’s work as his or her own; it includes:
Any student who plagiarizes, whether from published material (such as a web site, book, or magazine) or from unpublished material (such as another student’s writing), will receive an F on the assignment. Any student who submits someone else’s work as if it were his or her own will receive an F on the assignment and may fail the class. Copying information from an online source directly into a paper will result in an automatic F for the assignment and possible failure of the course.
All work produced in this course is considered public and is used for the purposes of teaching and evaluation. This may include the use of your work as a model for future students and the submission of your work to an online plagiarism detection service.
Co-Curricular Probation: Students placed on academic probation at the end of the semester will be barred from most co-curricular activities the following semester. See the college catalog for further details.
Accommodations: Any student requiring accommodations because of a documented disability should notify the instructor AND the Academic Resource Center (Andrews Hall, third floor, 376-4700) at the beginning of the semester for further instructions.
A note on context: This course is a historical survey of African-American literature, exploring in some depth the cultural contexts surrounding texts from the past and present. We may occasionally encounter words or ideas that are outdated or even offensive; in order to avoid unnecessary grief, we will agree that reading and talking about offensive ideas is not the same as supporting them, and when words or ideas make us uncomfortable, we will use that discomfort as an opportunity to educate one another.
August
25 Introduction to the course; diagnostic writing
27 “The Vernacular Tradition” (3-8), “Go Down, Moses” (12-13), “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” (15-16), “You May Go But This Will Bring You Back” (30-31), “John Henry” (31-4), “The Signifying Monkey” (36-8), and “All God’s Children Had Wings” (132-3).
29 Suzan-Lori Parks, “Possession” (3-5), “The America Play” (157-99), “Elements of Style” (6-18) and “An Equation for Black People Onstage” (19-22)
September
1 Olaudah Equiano, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” (187-212).
3 Phyllis Wheatley (213-26), Jupiter Hammon (162-8).
8 Harriet Jacobs (279-315).
10 Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (462-73); Booker T. Washington, “The Atlanta Exposition Address” (594-602). Victor Sejour, “The Mulatto” (352-65), Charles Chesnutt, “The Passing of Grandison” (613-24).
12 W.E.B. DuBois, “Criteria of Negro Art” (777-84); James Weldon Johnson, poems (791-802), Paul Laurence Dunbar, poems (905-28); James D. Carrothers, poems (786-91); Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson, poems (936-41).
15 Alain Locke, “The New Negro” (983-93), Claude McKay, poems (1003-1010), Langston Hughes, poems and “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1288-1314), Countee Cullen, poems (1339-51)
17 Continue poetry
22 Zora Neale Hurston (1019-85)
24 Rudolph Fisher, “The City of Refuge” (1224-36); Richard Wright, “Blueprint for Negro Writing” (1399-1410) and “The Man Who Lived Underground” (1436-70)
26 Jean Toomer, from Cane (1168-1219)
29 Ralph Ellison, “Richard Wright’s Blues” and excerpts from Invisible Man (1535-70)
October
1 Gwendolyn Brooks (1623-49)
6 James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues” (1728-49), James Alan MacPherson, “A Solo Song: For Doc” (2101-17)
8 Review for exam
10 Midterm exam
(four-day break Oct. 11-14)
15 Lorraine Hansberry, “A Raisin in the Sun” (1768-1830)
17 Larry Neal, “The Black Arts Movement,” 2038-50; begin Toni Morrison, from Song of Solomon (2210-55)
20 Continue Morrison (2255-85)
22 Morrison, essays (2286-2322)
27 Amiri Baraka, poems, “Dutchman,” and “The Revolutionary Theatre” (1937-69)
29 Etheridge Knight, poems (1908-11); Ntozake Shange, “for colored girls” (2553-4)
31 Toni Cade Bambara, “Raymond’s Run” (2075-82), and Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild”
(2515-29)
November
3 Alice Walker, poems and “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” (2425-37); Maya Angelou, poems and excerpt from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (2155-67); Rita Dove, poems (2611-23).
5 Whitehead, John Henry Days (1-79)
10 Whitehead 80-142
12 Whitehead 143-96
14 Whitehead 197-241
17 Whitehead 242-98
19 Whitehead 299-337
21 Whitehead 338-389
24 Long paper draft due
(Thanksgiving Break Nov. 26-30)
December
1 No class; sign up for individual conferences.
3 No class; sign up for individual conferences
5 Long paper due; Review for final exam
11 Final exam, noon to 2:30 p.m.
One objective of any 300-level literature class is to introduce students to a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of literature. We will accomplish this by means of a series of discussions of theoretical articles. The theory discussions will require two types of responses from you, an article summary and participation in discussion.
Theory Article Summary
Early in the semester, you will be assigned one theoretical article from the list below. In order to earn 60 points, you must:
Theory Discussion Participation
You will be expected to participate in electronic discussion of theoretical articles summarized by your classmates on each of the five dates listed. Failure to participate will result in an absence and a deduction in the grade. In order to earn 40 points, you must:
For both the summary assignment and the discussions, technical difficulty is no excuse for failure to participate. However, in the case of catastrophic technical difficulties (such as the failure of the college server or a power outage), I will contact the class to set up an alternative method of fulfilling this requirement.
Theory Discussion Schedule
Sept. 5 Theory Discussion
Katherine Barrington: Jarrett, Gene Andrew. “The Problem of African American Literature.” Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2007. 1-27.
Ashley Nolan: Akoma, Chiji. “Black Oral Performance and Writing Traditions in the New World.” Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2007. 1-20.
Katlyn Williams: Gates, Henry Louis Jr. “Introduction to The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 339-47.
Jackie Adamescu: Neal, Larry. “And Shine Swam On: An Afterward.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 69-80.
Sept. 19 Theory Discussion
Michael Cress: Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. “My Statue, My Self: Autobiographical Writings of Afro-American Women.” Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin, 1990.176-203
Brenda Puckett: McKay, Nellie Y. “The Souls of Black Women Folk in the Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois.” Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin, 1990.227-43.
Justina Stevens: Dixon, Melvin. “The Black Writer’s Use of Memory.” History and Memory in African-American Culture. Ed. Genevieve Fabre and Robert O’Meally. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. 18-27.
Yolien Peeters: Gates, Henry Louis. “Preface to Blackness: Text and Pretext.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 147-64.
Amanda Shanks: Robinson, Lillian S., and Greg Robinson. “Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Credit to his Race?” African American Review 41.2 (2007): 215-25.
Oct. 3 Theory Discussion
Brian Smith: Gayle, Addison Jr. “Cultural Strangulation: Black Literature and the White Aesthetic.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 92-96.
Chris Blondel: Baker, Houston A Jr. “On the Criticism of Black American Literature: One View of the Black Aesthetic.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 113-31.
Noel Ockuly: Henderson, Stephen E. “Saturation: Progress Report on a Theory of Black Poetry.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 102-112.
Chuck Bonakoski: Baker, Houston A Jr. “Belief, Theory, and Blues: Notes for a Post-Structuralist Criticism of Afro-American Literature.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 224-41.
Peter Frantz: Chakkalakal, Tess. “ ‘Making a Collection’: James Weldon Johnson and the Mission of African American Literature.” South Atlantic Quarterly 104.3 (Summer 2005): 521-41,
Oct. 24 Theory Discussion
Erica Martin: Willis, Susan. “Eruptions of Funk: Historicizing Toni Morrison.” Black American Literature Forum 16.1 (Spring 1982): 34-42. Available on JSTOR.
Jamie Gomez: Awkward, Michael. “ ‘Unruly and Let Loose’: Myth, Ideology, and Gender in Song of Solomon.” Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon: A Casebook. Ed. Jan Furman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 67-93.
Noel Harness: duCille, Ann. “Phallus(ies) of Interpretation: Toward Engendering the Black Critical ‘I’.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 443-49.
Amanda Griesser: Nero, Charles I. “Toward a Black Gay Aesthetic: Signifying in Contemporary Black Gay Literature.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 399-420.
Muyumba, Walton. “Improvising over the Changes: Improvisation as Intellectual and Aesthetic Practice in the Transitional Poems of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka.” College Literature 34.1 (Winter 2007): 23-51.
Nov. 7 Theory Discussion
Alice Harmon: Smith, Barbara. “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 132-46.
Porscha Bishop: Williams, Sherley Anne. “Some Implications of Womanist Theory.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 218-23.
Kelly Park: Henderson, Mae Gwendolyn. “Speaking in Tongues: Dialogics, Dialectics, and the Black Woman Writer’s Literary Tradition.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 348-68.
Baker, Houston A Jr. “Theoretical Returns.” African American Literary Theory: A Reader. Ed. Winston Napier. New York: New York UP, 2000. 421-42.
You must complete three of the short papers described below, at least two of them before midterm. Papers are due at the beginning of class on the date listed. If the syllabus should be changed, the due dates for the papers may change as well; the rule is that the paper must be turned in before that material is discussed in class. Late papers will not be accepted. Each short paper should be brief (about three pages) but well developed and should
Due Aug. 29
Suzan-Lori Parks titled her work “The America Play,” not “The African-American Play.” What does the play suggest about American history, national identity, literature, or values? Identify at least three specific American characteristics suggested by the play; support your statements with evidence from the text.
Due Sept. 1
One of the problems early African-American authors had to overcome was white readers’ skepticism about slaves’ abilities to produce literature. Consider Olaudah Equiano, Phyllis Wheatley, Jupiter Hammon, and Harriet Jacobs; how do they attempt to appeal to skeptical readers? What specific techniques do they use to establish credibility? Choose two of these authors and compare their methods, supporting your thesis with evidence from the texts.
Due Sept. 10
Select one character from Victor Sejour’s “The Mulatto” and one from Charles Chesnutt’s “The Passing of Grandison” and explain how they might respond to Booker T. Washington’s ideas in his “Atlanta Exposition Address” or Frederick Douglass’s ideas in “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” You may with to set up an imaginary dialogue between the two characters. Support your thesis with evidence from the text.
Due Sept. 12
In “Criteria of Negro Art,” W.E.B. DuBois declared that “All Art is Propaganda.” Consider this statement as you read the poetry of James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James D. Carrothers, and Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson. Choose one or two of these authors and argue that he or she would or would not agree with DuBois, using evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Due Sept. 15
Explain what Alain Locke means by “The New Negro,” using examples from the poetry of Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen.
Due Sept. 22
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing grew out of ideas fermenting at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, and yet in many ways she defies those ideas. Describe the characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance in your own words and argue that one or more specific Hurston works does or does not fit into that movement.
Due Sept. 24
Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits” portrays Eatonville as a paradise endangered by forces from outside the community. Consider the communities portrayed by Rudolph Fisher, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, and Jean Toomer: paradise or hell or something in between? What forces endanger these communities? Compare the portrayal of community in two of these authors’ works.
Due Oct. 6
The titles of both James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and James Alan MacPherson’s “A Solo Song: For Doc” refer to music. Why might these authors want their readers to think about music? Compare the role of music within these stories, considering not only content but structure. Support your thesis with evidence from the texts.
Due Oct. 17
Argue that Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon either does or does not fit within the rubric of the Black Arts Movement as described by Larry Neal. Use evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Due Oct. 27
Essentialism and performativity are two (of many) ways of looking at race. Essentialism suggests that race is something you are, while performativity suggests that race is something you do. How do Amiri Baraka, Etheridge Knight, and Ntozake Shange portray the relationship between performance and race? Choose two of these authors and compare their approaches to the issue of essentialism vs. performativity, using evidence from the texts to support your thesis.
Due Oct. 31
Many of the authors we’ve read consider the problem of power, but Toni Cade Bambara and Octavia Butler explore the problem of powerlessness. Compare the types of power portrayed in “Raymond’s Run” and “Bloodchild,” paying special attention to the plight of the powerless. Support your thesis with evidence from the texts.
Due Nov. 3
Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and Rita Dove offer a variety of models of African-American womanhood. Choose two of these authors and compare their portrayals of women, supporting your thesis with evidence from the texts.
Due Nov. 5
Colson Whitehead’s John Henry Days draws comparisons between the John Henry legend and the lives of ordinary working people today. Why? What does this comparison suggest about the nature of work or the role of mythic heroes?
Your reading this semester will introduce you to a wide variety of African-American authors; this assignment provides an opportunity to explore the works of one of those authors in greater depth. For your long paper, select any author who appears on the reading list and find at least two additional works by that author. Write a paper analyzing some aspect of your author’s work--a theme, an idea, a literary technique, or something else interesting. Your paper should focus on a clear thesis and demonstrate some awareness of cultural or historical contexts and critical approaches to the works in question. You may wish to incorporate relevant material from one of your short papers, but the bulk of this paper should be original work. Your paper must:
Your success on this paper will depend largely on your careful attention to each step in the process:
Choosing a topic
Select an author whose work you find enjoyable and interesting and who provides plenty of material for analysis.
Conducting research
In order to read other works by your chosen author, you may need to order books through Ohiolink; therefore, begin your preliminary research early enough to allow those books to arrive. In addition, look for source material that can inform you about the historical and cultural context in which your author wrote, and use the library’s searchable catalog and research databases (especially JSTOR and the Electronic Journal Center) to discover what others have already written about your author.
Choosing sources
Writing a paper is like entering a conversation that has been going on for some time; therefore, you must read widely enough to be able to add something to that conversation that has not already been said before. In order to accomplish this, you will need to consult sources that will help you understand the historical and cultural context of the works, the ideas and concepts contained in the works, and the approaches other scholars have taken to analyzing the works.
Remember also that the quality of your final paper depends largely upon the quality of your sources. Books and peer-reviewed academic journals (available on JSTOR and the Electronic Journal Center) are considered the most reliable sources in literary analysis; you may find some information on web sites, but if the bulk of your sources are web sites, the quality of your argument will inevitably suffer.
Your paper must incorporate information from at least six print sources. Print sources are those, like books and articles in scholarly journals, that originally appeared in print form. Web sites are not print sources; however, when you use the library’s research databases to access full-text journal articles that originally appeared in print, these are considered print sources.
Writing a draft
Drafts are due in class Nov. 24; failure to turn in a draft on that date will result in an F for the paper. You will need to bring three hard copies of the draft to class for peer review, and you will need to send an electronic copy to me as a Word attachment. I will meet with students in individual conferences the week of Dec. 1 to offer suggestions and answer questions.
The final paper is due in class Dec. 5.
Deadlines
Nov. 24: Draft due; failure to turn in a draft will result in an F on the final paper.
Dec. 1-3 no class; sign up for individual conferences.
Dec. 5: Long paper due