Professor Hans Ostrom
English 426: Twentieth-Century African-American Literature
Phone: x3434 (voice mail); x3235 (English office).
Office hours: T-Th, 10:00-11:30, and by appointment.
"Final Curve"
When you turn the corner
And you run into yourself
Then you know that you have turned
All the corners that are left.
--Langston Hughes, Selected Poems, p. 136
Aims of the Course
The history and experience of African Americans are unique; therefore, African-American literature is in many ways unique. One purpose of the course is to explore this distinctiveness.
Another is to read, interpret, and connect key works of African-American literature published this century, and to try to come to know the visions of such writers as W.E.B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison.
A third purpose is to consider what sociologist Gunnar Myrdal called the American dilemma--race--through the multifaceted lens of literature. How are histories of race, American preoccupations with race, and the concept of "race" itself defined in this literature? To what degree can we come to know more about ourselves as we come to know more about these books? How has the American dilemma determined the way we read literature? What light does this literature shed on key issues of power, law, sex, oppression, economics, and gender?
Also, to immerse oneself in African-American literature is to enlarge one’s sense of American literature and of literature & criticism in general.
Your Responsibilities
This is a 400-level course that demands commitment, promptness, scholarly seriousness, and collegiality. It demands much reading, writing, and discussion.
The Books
(information about editions is in the bookstore)
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder
W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Langston Hughes, Selected Poems
Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks On The Road
June Jordan, Technical Difficulties
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
Gloria Naylor, Linden Hills
Sonia Sanchez, I’ve Been A Woman
Photocopies of poems, stories, essays.
We will also look at key works of cinema, documentary and otherwise, and we will not be strangers to the library.
Requirements
Regular, alert, and fully participatory attendance.
Keeping up with the reading.
Completing writing assignments successfully and on time.
Completing other assignments successfully and on time.
Attending screenings of films.
Not eating in class.
Grading
One "ink-shedding" piece per week, for a total of 14, assessed on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis: 20 per cent.
Two essays, which will interpret works and draw on outside sources: 50 per cent.
Participation: 20 per cent. Contribution to discussions and group work. Any special library assignments fall under this category. So does the work of discussion-starters.
One mega-quiz: 10 per cent. This quiz will cover any and all reading, as well as material I discuss in mini-lectures.
THE SCHEDULE
This schedule is deliberately detailed but necessarily subject to change. The essential plan of reading and writing will remain constant, but adjustments within the plan are inevitable. I will elaborate on reading, writing, and discussion assignments as we move along.
Tuesday, January 16. Introduction to the course. Given the amount of reading, writing, and discussion required, do you want remain on board? One key topic this week: "double-consciousness." Some ink-shedding.
Thursday, January 18. Read W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk. In addition to "double-consciousness," identify at least three topics you believe to be important. At some point before the end of February, view the "Langston Hughes" episode of Voices and Visions; this 50-minute videotape may be checked out in the A/V department of the library.
Tuesday, January 23. Finish discussion of Dubois, though we will come back to him. Some poetry by Langston Hughes. Some information about the Harlem Renaissance. Start reading Bontemps’ novel.
Thursday, January 25. Inkshedding. Poetry by Langston Hughes. "Signifying."
Tuesday, January 30. Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder.
Thursday, February 1. Inkshedding. Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on the Road.
Tuesday, February 6. Dust Tracks. More poems from Hughes.
Thursday, February 8. Inkshedding. Invisible Man.
Tuesday, February 13. Invisible Man.
Thursday, February 15. Invisible Man. What we’ve covered so far in the course. Inkshedding. Essay assigned, discussed. A Hughes short story, "The Blues I’m Playing." Notions of "passing," "visibility," and "invisibility."
Tuesday, February 20. The Fire Next Time. Inkshedding.
Thursday, February 22. Documentary, "The Price of the Ticket" (James Baldwin). Discussion.
Tuesday, February 27. Naylor, Linden Hills.
Thursday, February 29. Naylor, Linden Hills. Inkshedding.
Tuesday, March 5. Draft of essay due. Drawing connections among Dubois, Hughes, Hurston, Bontemps, Ellison, Baldwin, Naylor.
Thursday, March 7. Library assignment given, begun. Inkshedding.
March 11-15: Spring Break.
Tuesday, March 19. Essay due. Sonia Sanchez, I’ve Been a Woman. Inkshedding.
Thursday, March 21. Film: "Native Son."
Tuesday, March 26. Technical Difficulties. And some photocopied pieces from Nikki Giovanni. Essay assigned.
Thursday, March 28. Begin Discussion of Song of Solomon. Inkshedding.
Tuesday, April 2. Film: "Do The Right Thing." Discussion.
Thursday, April 4. Film: "Do The Right Thing." (Inkshedding.) Discussion.
Tuesday, April 9. Song of Solomon.
Thursday, April 11. Song of Solomon. Inkshedding.
Tuesday, April 16. Draft of essay due.
Thursday, April 18. Words and music: blues; blues lyrics; boogie-woogie; rhythm-and-blues. Inkshedding.
Tuesday, April 23. Selection from Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art.
Thursday, April 25. Essay due. Inkshedding.
Tuesday, April 30. Our megaquiz.
Thursday, May 2. An English 426 production of "Montage of a Dream Deferred."
Tuesday, May 7. Something involving food.