01 CAC MW5 12156 MATHES MU-211
This course examines how the literary form of the novel has developed throughout the black world—within the U.S., and across transnational and diasporic contexts. The arc of our survey moves from William Wells Brown’s Clotel, or the President’s Daughter (1853), the first novel published by a black American through novels focusing on and/or published in Haiti, Nigeria, Jamaica, and the UK. The assignments, lectures, and discussions in the class will focus on issues of both form and context/content. Strategies of close reading and literary interpretation will be central to the class (and will be major factors in how your work is evaluated) as we consider the larger contextual questions of black literary history and the making of a novelistic tradition that speaks to the complexities of black life across geographic and historical lines.
Readings may include- Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe), Clotel, or the President’s Daughter (William Wells Brown), A True History of Paradise (Margaret Cezair-Thompson), The Farming of Bones (Edwidge Danticat), Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison), Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston), Swing Time (Zadie Smith), Meridian (Alice Walker)
Requirements:
2 essays (5-7 pages)
Attendance/Participation
In-class writings/quizzes
Midterm short exam