Heather Hathaway

Marquette University

The Art and Politics of Black Women Writers
(taught at Trinity College, Fall 1993)

OBJECTIVES:
This course is designed to provide students with an historical overview of Black womens writing in the United States. Beginning with slave narratives, we explore the degrees to which Black womens literature in the 19th century was inherently political both in terms of its motivations and public reception. As we progress through the 20th century, our goal is to examine how the relationship between the aesthetic and the political continues to be expressed in the texts, and to consider this against the backdrop of social constructions of race and gender. This is an advanced course which requires from the students some knowledge of both African American literary history as well as literary theory.

SCHEDULE:
Sept. 2

  • Introduction

    Sept. 7, 9

  • 19th Century Women's Narratives--Enslaved and Free:
    --Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)

    Sept. 14, 16

  • Harriet Wilson, Our Nig (1859)

    Sept. 21, 23

  • The Woman's Era:
    -Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces (1900)

    Sept. 28, 30

  • Race, Class and Gender During the Harlem Renaissance:
    --Selected short stories from Marcy Knopf, ed.
    --The Sleeper Wakes: Harlem Renaissance Stories by Women (1993)

    Oct. 5, 7

  • The Urban(e) Outsider:
    --Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928) and
    --Passing (1929)

    Reading Week Oct. 11-15

    Oct. 19, 21

  • A Radical Revision of the WomenFolk:
    --Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

    Oct. 26, 28

  • The Fifties: Two More Views:
    --Ann Petry, The Narrows (1953)

    Nov. 2, 4

  • Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959)

    **Nov. 4

  • First Paper Due in Class. 5-7 pages. Topics TBA.

    Nov. 9, 11

  • The Recent "Renaissance":
    --Toni Morrison, Sula (1973)

    Nov. 16, 18

  • Alice Walker, Meridian (1976)

    Nov. 23

  • Catch up and review

    Nov. 25

  • Thanksgiving

    Nov. 30, Dec. 2

  • Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place (1982)

    Dec. 7, 9

  • To be or not to be?:
    --Terry McMillan, Waiting to Exhale

    **Dec. 9

  • Final Paper due in class. 10-12 pages. Topics TBA.

    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