Topics in African-American Literature: Rebels, Sheroes, and Race Men

AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES 386A

In this seminar-for we are fortunate to be an elite group this term--we will focus on the first century of African American prose writers. In genre terms that means we will largely, but not exclusively, read autobiographies and novels. Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs are now familiar names in U.S. literature surveys, but others are not yet household names, and in fact may never be. We will survey a core group of texts, available at the WUSTL bookstore, but also supplement our readings with materials placed on BlackBoard, via online databases (e.g., materials accessible digitally from the Schomburg Division of the New York Public Library). For AFAS majors, this course counts as Area Requirement 1.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; AS LCD; AS SD I; FA HUM; AR HUM; AS SC