ENGL207 final paper

ENGL 207: African-American Literature SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1

Instructor: Dr. Vincent Williams Office location: MacCalister 5040

Instructor e-mail:[email protected] Office telephone: (215) 518-4289

Office hours: W 9:30-11:30 am and by Appointment

Purpose/Description of the Course

This course focuses on a highly select number of African-American literary productions, many which do not have high visibility in introductory African-American literature courses. Though the authors of the texts on this syllabus have well-established places in the history of African-American letters, this course focuses on dynamic and brilliantly crafted texts that have received ambivalent or controversial criticism in the annals of African-American literary history. The aim of this course is that students leave the course with the ability to discuss the thematic and stylistic characteristics of some of the most well-known Black writers, that the students are able to discuss the relationship between the novels and poems and the political and social climate in which the works were written, that the students are able to articulate their appreciation for the peculiar characteristics of varying genres, that the students are able to write about these works using reasoned arguments, that the students are able to appreciate the diversity of race, class, and gender as well as have some understanding of how race, class, gender, and sexuality function as foundation/location for how or what we think, and that the students are able to share their knowledge of these works orally without embarrassment and with confidence. Classroom lectures, more frequent discussions, and assignments are arranged to effect these goals.

Schedule

Part One: Slavery Era

Week One: Introduction, Overview of African-American Literary History, Phillis Wheatley poetry: “On Being Brought From Africa to America”, “On Imagination” “To S.M., a Young African Painter Upon Seeing His Works” “To Samson Occom” “To His Excellency George Washington

Week Two: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Week Three: Selections from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Part Two: Promise of a New Day

Week Four: Paper One, JAMES WELDON JOHNSON: Sence You Went Away, Lift Ev’ry Voice

and Sing, O Black and Unknown Bards, Fifty Years, Brothers,The Creation, My

City

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872–1906)

Ode to Ethiopia, Worn Out, A Negro Love Song

The Colored Soldiers, An Ante-Bellum Sermon

Not They Who Soar, When Malindy Sings

We Wear the Mask, Little Brown Baby

Her Thought and His, Douglass

ALICE MOORE DUNBAR NELSON

Violets, I Sit and Sew, April Is on the Way

Week Five: W.E.B. Dubois, “Criteria of Negro Art,” Alain Locke, “The New Negro,” Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”

Week Six: Langston Hughes “Harlem,” “Theme For English B” “Dream Boogie,” “Ballad of the Landlord” “Song for Billie Holiday” “Song for a Dark Girl” GWENDOLYN B. BENNETT “Heritage”, “To a Dark Girl”, “Sonnet—2”, “Hatred”

Week Seven: Paper Two, excerpts from Zora Neale Hurston, There Eyes Were Watching God

Part Three: Concrete, Steel, and Glass-Black Literature & The Urban Experience

Week Eight: Richard Wright, “Blueprint for Negro Writing”, Chester Himes, “To What Red Hell”

Week Nine: Lorraine Hansberry, “A Raisin in the Sun”

Week Ten: Etheridge Knight, “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal

Insane, Amiri Baracka, “Black Art,” Sonia Sanchez, “homecoming,” Nikki Giovanni,

“From a Logical Point of View”

Week Eleven: Final Paper Due, wrap-up (eh, we’ll probably play some hip-hop)

Required Texts

Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd Edition

Assignments/Requirements

There will be three papers, two 5-7 page essays which will cover the material to that point and a final cumulative 7-9 page essay. While I will provide sample theses, I would prefer if you generated one on your own. There will also be weekly response papers based on the PowerPoint assignments I’ll post.

Further Requirements, Dates, Issues To Remember

1. I do not accept late papers nor do I accept e-mailed papers. All papers are to be typed, double-spaced and stapled.

2. I shall follow the rules in the student handbook regarding plagiarism. Also, I have failed students for turning in a paper to me that was written for another class.

3. If you miss class because of a doctor’s appointment, please give me a note from the doctor on his or her letterhead.

4. I do not give incomplete grades.

5. I reserve the option of lowering the grade by one letter or a plus or a minus of any student who misses more than three classes.

6. Students are not allowed to enter the class ten minutes after my arrival. THEREFORE, IF A STUDENT WORKS PRIOR TO ATTENDING CLASS, THE STUDENT MUST MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO ATTEND CLASS ON TIME.

Computation of Final Grade

First Two Papers = 25% Each

Final Paper = 40%

Class Participation = 10%\

A 96-100

A- 90-95

B+ 87-98

B 84-86

B- 80-83

C+ 77-79

C 74-76

C- 70-73

D+ 65-69

D 60-64

F 55 (Effort)

0 Failure to turn in an assignment.