Course Syllabus

ENGL 2460 African-American Literature

Course Description

This course focuses on the contributions of African-American writers to the development of a multi-racial culture in America, and to the expression of the black experience through literature.

Justification

A lower division survey of American literature is standard at most colleges and universities. This course will transfer as general education, elective, or major credit. It fulfills general education credit within the Humanities category (HU) and a major requirement for English majors.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to read, analyze, and discuss a selection of culturally and historically significant African American literary texts. Students will be able to understand and explain the value of literature in both reflecting and making meaning within the context of an evolving United States.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to read and analyze fictional and non-fictional primary and secondary literary texts. They will also be able to effectively research the biographical, historical, and cultural context of representative texts.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to draw from relevant disciplines, which may include history, sociology, philosophy, economics, and geography to effectively understand and interpret African American literary works in the context of the time and place from which they were produced.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to critically analyze and evaluate the rhetorical choices authors make in order to understand and creatively interpret representative fiction and nonfiction African American literary texts.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read and analyze questions about the human condition (the role that literature plays within sociopolitical discourse, the nature of identity, how historically marginalized people reclaim power, etc.) as expressed in African American literary texts. Students will be able to articulate the ways in which authors have explored these questions and join their voices to the larger academic conversation. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read and analyze questions about the human condition (the role that literature plays within sociopolitical discourse, the nature of identity, how historically marginalized people reclaim power, etc.) as expressed in African American literary texts. Students will be able to articulate the ways in which authors have explored these questions and join their voices to the larger academic conversation.
2. EXPLAIN: Explain how humanities artifacts take on meaning within networks or systems (such as languages, cultures, values, and worldviews) that account for the complexities and uncertainties of the human condition. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read, analyze, and synthesize fiction and nonfiction texts and explain how these texts operate within a broader context of differing cultural worldviews. Students will be able to explain how factors such as history, audience, authorial choices in relation to the text, and personal biases help to better understand the complexities and uncertainties of the human condition.
3. ANALYZE: Analyze humanities artifacts according to humanities methodologies, such as a close analysis, questioning, reasoning, interpretation, and critical thinking. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to engage in close reading of African American fiction and nonfiction literary texts, using critical thinking to question, reason, and interpret these texts with consideration of broader interdisciplinary connections.
4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Compare and contrast diverse humanistic perspectives across cultures, communities, and/or time periods to explain how people make meaning of their lives. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to compare and contrast (synthesize) the perspectives of the various, often opposing, ideologies represented in African American fiction and nonfiction texts that span American history. They will also be able to examine literary texts in historical and cultural context and be able to articulate how lived experience and meaning are expressed through literature.
5. APPLY: Using humanities perspectives, reflect on big questions related to aesthetics, values, meaning, and ethics and how those apply to their own lives.  Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to reflect on, and apply, African American literary texts and associated ideas and questions within the contexts of their individual experiences and larger community. They will be able to examine relevant ethical complexities and values in representative texts and explore how they connect with their contemporary experiences.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Ask and explore a variety of philosophical and theoretical questions about human thought and experience.
   Through the study of a representative selection of African-American literature texts from slave narratives to contemporary works of fiction, students will examine a variety of historical and social questions about the African-American experience (i.e. the effects of history on contemporary works, historical provocation of works, search of identity and acceptance, inclusion vs. exclusion). Class discussions, essays, and essay-exams will allow students to demonstrate they can articulate ways in which African-American authors have asked and answered various questions; they will also allow students to demonstrate they can participate in the conversation.
2. Understand how knowledge is created through the study of language systems, literature, and/or philosophy.
   Through the practice of close reading (literary analysis), students will understand how knowledge is created within the field of literature. Students will be able understand how such things as history, audience, authorial choices in relation to the text, and personal biases impact the reading of a text. Students will be asked to demonstrate their ability to read closely on exams and in written assignments.
3. Understand cultural traditions within an historical context and make connections with the present.
   Students will understand black cultural development in the United States from the time of slavery through the present as presented through literature. They will also be able to discuss representative works of American literature in historical context and be able to articulate connections with contemporary culture. Class discussions, quizzes, and exams will allow students to identify, contextualize, and explain various authors, works, and movements in African-American literature.
4. Critically read and respond to primary texts (original, uninterpreted) from a Humanities' perspective.
   Students will be able to read, interpret, analyze, and respond to a representative selection of primary literary texts. Reading strategies, writing assignments, discussion, and exams will allow students to demonstrate an ability to read critically in order to understand, explain, and evaluate literary texts.
5. Write effectively within the Humanities discipline to analyze and form critical and aesthetic judgments.
   Students will be able to write interpretive/analytic/argumentative papers that are supported through textual analysis. They will be given feedback from both the instructor and classmates on written drafts and then given an opportunity to revise.

Course Content

English 2460 covers a selection of significant and representative literary works of American literature written by African American authors. The course focuses on close reading, literary conventions, historical influences, contextual and textual analysis, interpretation, synthesis, critical thinking, and writing. Genres may include early spirituals, poetry, slave narratives, non-fiction essays and autobiographies, short fiction, and novels.