English 149-1 - Summer Sessions I, 2014

Topics in Literature

Topic: 21st Century African American Literature & Film

Class Information

Instructor: Heard Mollel, Danielle
CRN: 53617
Time: TR 2:10-4:40
Location: 7 Wellman

Description

21st Century African American Literature and Film

In this course we will examine poetry, plays, long and short fiction, graphic novels, and film produced by some of the most celebrated black writers and filmmakers in the U.S. and Canada since the dawn of the new millennium. Twenty-first century African American writers and filmmakers tend to address particular questions regarding what it means to be black for a generation whose lives have been bookended by the national Civil Rights Movement on one side and the first black presidency on the other. Blackness--complicated by its intersections with class, sexuality, gender, contemporary politics, postmodern culture, popular and historical representations of racial others, the current standards of "political correctness," and the advent of "multiculturalism--is the focal point around black artists of today experiment. Much of what we will read in this course tends toward satirical, and many of the course texts cover aesthetic movements like Afrofuturism, Afrosurrealism, magical realism, sci-fi and horror, and other experimental aesthetics that have either begun or gained new currency since 2000. You can expect to read/view works by Percival Everett, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tracy K. Smith, Mat Johnson, Colson Whitehead, Danzy Senna, Junot Diaz, Spike Lee, Nalo Hopkinson, Edwidge Dandicat, Danielle Evans, Thomas Glave, and Linda Addison. NB: If you have taken ENL 181B, this course provides a great opportunity to continue your study of African American literature into the 21st century; however, this course welcomes everyone to enroll.

Grading

2 short essays, 40%
group presentation, 15%
midterm exam, 15%
final exam 15%
participation and attendance 15%

Texts

Erasure, Percival Everett
Ingognegro, Mat Johnson
Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks
PDFs of shorter pieces on SmartSite