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.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL Grading Mode: Student Option
Prerequisites: ENGL201 OR AFAM201
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
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