AML 2600-0002 Spring - Mitchell

This course surveys African American literature and culture. We will explore canonical works within the field and specifically examine the ways in which Black writers depict the afterlives of slavery in their literary work. By looking at each course text as a window into Black life, the works of Solomon Northup, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Gaines, and Jesmyn Ward will be analyzed from an angle that considers literary work as archival products. The course will rely on Toni Morrison’s discussion of the literary imagination to consider the ways that narrative fiction can reflect historical events. By engaging with the assigned texts, students will come to understand how Black writers take agency in narrating their own stories and experiences in ways that represent their lives authentically.