Farah Jasmine Griffin

University of Pennsylvania

English 81: Topics in Afro-American Literature

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE AND THE CITY

How (does) a dispossessed people, a disenfranchised people, a people without orthodox power, view the cities it inhabits but does not have claim to?
--Toni Morrison

This course considers the experience of migration and urbanization in selected texts by African-American writers. Our emphasis will be on the ways these writers have portrayed the perils and promise of urban life. In light of this we will consider: how the historical and political moment of production accounts for the different ways the urban experience is represented and how it is reflected in the shape of the narrative itself. This includes an under- standing of the racial, class and gender politics at work in each text. Finally, the film screenings and group projects are of great significance to the course. These extra-literary works and presentations, provide us with the vital historical, social and political backdrop upon which we will build our understanding of each text.

REQUIRED READINGS
Jean Toomer, Cane
Nella Larsen, Quicksand
Langston Hughes, Selected Poems
Richard Wright, Native Son
Ann Petry, The Street
James Baldwin, Go Tell It On the Mountain
Paule Marshall, Brown girl/Brownstones
Gwendolyn Brooks, Maude Martha
Alex Haley and Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Toni Morrison, Jazz

EXAM TEXTS
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

FILM SCREENINGS
Celebrating Bird
Monk: Straight No Chaser
The Many Faces of Lady Day
Sarah Vaughan
The Price of the Ticket
El Hajj Malik El Shabazz

REQUIREMENTS
1. Mid-Term - All I.D.s
2. 5-7 Page Critical Essay. Suggested topics will be distributed.
3. Take home final: You will be required to read either Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, or Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. We will meet in study groups to discuss the book prior to your receiving the exam. You will then receive one question which requires a 3 to 5 page answer.
4. Viewing all screened videos and/or films.

This page was prepared by Audrey Mickahail at the Center for Electronic Projects in American Culture Studies (CEPACS), housed at Georgetown University, under the direction of Randy Bass, Department of English.


CEPACS