TR 9:30-10:45, CB 331

 

Instructor: Laura Barrio-Vilar

E-mail: Lbarr2@uky.edu

Office: 1222 Patterson Office Tower

Phone: 257-6988; Mailbox: 1215 P.O.T.

Office Hours: T 11:00 – 2:00

 

“Race, Gender, and Class in the African Diaspora”

Library (1969) by Jacob Lawrence

Major Black Writers

ENG/AAS 264-001: Major Black Writers (Spring’05)

Course Description

 

This course serves as an introduction to literature written by Black authors.  Although our main focus will be the study of African American literature, we will also consider works by other writers of the African Diaspora.

 

We will explore various literary genres in order to discover how different writers articulate the Black experience in specific cultural, historical, and political contexts.  Moreover, we will consider how Black literature has evolved over time and has impacted various social and political movements around the world, such as Emancipation and Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, Négritude and Negrista movements, Postcolonialism, Feminism, and the Black Arts movement.

 

We will discuss issues such as the following:  What kinds of works constitute the (Black) literary canon?  How is the Black experience articulated in literature?  In what ways do race, class, gender, sexuality, and culture affect the construction of Black identity and Black literature?  How does Black literature influence society?  How do the assigned texts speak to each other?

 

Last updated on May 2, 2005

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Basket Market (2002)

by Frantz Pierre

American Ironers (1943)

by Jacob Lawrence