Analysis
LALALALA
Literatureasresistance.pptxLiterature as a Resistance
AA Language & Literature
African American Lit: Overview
Slavery
Slave narratives
Poetry/Fiction of Slavery
Reconstruction
Trails/Hardships after Civil War
African American Church
Harlem Renaissance
Creativity & Identity
Cultural resurgence
The Black Arts Movement: Civil Rights
Social Revolution
Modern Black Literature
Street/Urban Lit
Experimental Poetry
Spoken Word
Literature of Slavery & Reconstruction
Confirmation of Intellectual Ability
for a White Audience
Exposure of Inhuman Treatment
Born 1753 in Senegal/Gambia
Enslaved at the age of 8 and sold to John Wheatley
Educated in Latin Greek, and English
First African American to publish a book of poems
Poetry was contested as not being able to be written by a slave
Harlem Renaissance
Audience was not expressly white.
Literature explored culture, not just ideas of slavery
Identity, style, enlightenment, and social progress was also emphasized
Innovation in Form/Structure
Born 1902
Author, The Weary Blues (1926)
Author of short stories, plays
Wrote about and explicitly for black audiences
Black Arts Movement Late (1940-1975's)
Late
Resistance & Socio-Political Awareness
Black Nationalism
Separatism
Early
Integrationalist Ideas
Modernist
Tension between ideologies
Dust Tracks on Road – Zora Neale Hurston
Richard Wright
Poetry of Resistance: A Case Study
Reading Poetry
Subject
Tone
Language
Indirect meaning
the mother
The Lovers of the Poor
We Real Cool
How are the poems a response towards audience perception?
How does the content act a reflection of ideas of identity, resistance, and cultural pride?
What school of thought do you place Gwendolyn Brooks, early or late Black Arts Movement work?
What influences do you see from literature of the Harlem Renaissance, and the literature of slavery?
Black Authors: Meeting the Challenge
Toni Morrison
(in class documentary)
Born 1931 in Ohio
First African American to win Nobel Prize
Pulitzer prize winner, President's Medal of Freedom
Award winning author of Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Paradise
Toni Morrison Interview
"Home" Excerpt
What is Black Literature: #1
Renegade Poetics
"...strategies that African American writers... use to negotiate gaps or conflicts between their artistic goals and the operation of race in... their writing”
Negotiation of expectations of American society
Push towards authenticity of culture
Exploration of voice & identity
Experimentation in form/sound/function as a way of expression
What is Black Literature: #2
Resistance Poetry
Reaction to limited representation
Push for reform and recognition in the face of oppression
Extension of other forms of protest and political action
"Do I want to be integrated into a burning house...."
-Amiri Baraka
What is Black Literature: #3
Truth-Telling
Refusal to omit or shy away from explicit, extreme, and disturbing ideas about American society
Highlighting the truth of black lives and the disparity of difference between white and black experience
"something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society: a child; the most vulnerable member: a female"
-Toni Morrison
Reading for Next Week...
"Signifying Monkey" (Monday)
Vershawn Young (Friday)
Definitions for code-switching/code-meshing
Argument/Form in his essay
Forms
Tropes
Strategies
What is signifyin'?
What influences can you find from literature/language examples in current American culture?
What are the qualities of an oral tradition?
How has language, literature, and oral traditions have influenced American culture now?
"African American History and Oral Traditions" (Wednesday)
Storytelling
Toasts
Sermons
Speeches
