01 MW4 CAC 10558 KERNAN MU-114
This course provides students with both exposure to some of the seminal texts of the and with the interpretive tools needed to situate those texts in their respective contemporary contexts: literary, political, and international. We will consider issues like: How did the contemporary politics and material conditions of production that surrounded the creation of Harlem Renaissance texts inform their aesthetics? How did Africa-American authors to the “triple demand” of Harlem Renaissance authorship:
a) to create “more sophisticated” African American Literary works
b) to create “authentic black texts”
c) to create texts that negotiated the demands of representing an heterogeneous community with the goal of forging, in and through the act of writing, a black modern identity.
As part and parcel to paying special heed to the manner in which our texts answer to these political, aesthetic, person, and communal dictates, we will consider questions like: How did early 20th century “Worldwide Negro Vogue” inform the well-springs of the Harlem Renaissance? What is the role of canonical Anglo-American modernism in the Harlem Renaissance? How did Harlem Renaissance authors use the trope of racial ambiguity and/or passing to explore racial dynamics in the US at the time? What features distinguish Harlem Renaissance texts from other early 20th century literary works written in English at the time? Students are expected to actively engage in class discussion, take regular reading quizzes, write one short midterm paper, and one longer final paper.