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Academic Year 2002/2003
Contemporary African American Narratives of Slavery
ENGL 324 FA
In this course, we will primarily be concerned with examining in some detail the recent proliferation of African American fiction about slavery. After a preliminary study of some notable antebellum slave narratives, we
will discuss the three major forms of representing slavery in contemporary narratives of slavery: historical novels set in the antebellum South; novels set in late 20th-century America but tracing modern social relations
within an explicit representation of the slave experience; and contemporary rewritings of antebellum slave narrative forms and conventions. The three major topics students should be engaged in to prepare them for this
seminar
are the historiography of American chattel slavery, the slave narrative as political and literary representation, and contemporary African American literary history and theory.
MAJOR READINGS
Andrews, William L., Ed., SIX WOMEN'S SLAVE NARRATIVES, Oxford UP, 1988
Bradley, David, THE CHANEYSVILLE INCIDENT, Harper & Row 1990
Butler, Octavia, KINDRED, Beacon, 1988
Douglass, Frederick, NARRATIVE
OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK
DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE; Ed. Houston A. Baker, Penguin, 1986
Jacobs, Harriet A., INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL, WRITTEN BY HERSELF; Ed. Jean Fagan Yellin, Harvard UP, 1987
Johnson, Charles, MIDDLE
PASSAGE, NAL, 1991
OXHERDING TALE, NAL, 1991
Jones, Gayl, CORREGIDORA, Beacon, 1986
Morrison, Toni, BELOVED, New American Library, 1989
Reed, Ishmael, FLIGHT TO CANADA, Antheneum, 1976 Williams, Sherley Anne, DESSA
ROSE, Berkley, 1987
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Four short papers (3 pages each) One research paper (15-20 pages) One final exam
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Prospective students in this course are encouraged to do some preliminary background reading on their own. The student might best prepare herself or himself by reading any one of the standard general histories of
American chattel slavery -- e.g. Eugene
Genovese's ROLL, JORDAN, ROLL: THE WORLD THE SLAVES MADE (Vintage, 1976) or John Blassingame's THE SLAVE COMMUNITY: PLANTATION LIFE IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH (Oxford UP, 1979)
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed
Drop/Add form to the Registrar's
Office.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
ENGL201 OR AFAM201
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-18-2003
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459