Fall 2016 Course descriptions

We will offer the following African American literature courses in Fall 2016.

Note: Each of the courses fulfills the general education requirements for:
Humanities-Breath; Fine Arts & Humanities; US Cultures-Exp; Intergroup relations

ENG 205: Introduction to African American Texts (MW 1:30 - 2:45 pm) - Professor Tisha Brooks

This survey course is designed to introduce you to a range of African American texts, including poetry, autobiography, short fiction, novels, essays, drama, as well as works from the oral tradition, such as songs, folktales, sermons and speeches. Our primary texts will span from the colonial through the contemporary period with the goal of exploring major historical and literary movements, trends, and key themes. In this course, we will also further develop our critical reading, speaking and writing skills in response to the literature that we encounter. In order to help ground our discussions and expand our exploration of African American literature beyond the text, we will use digital resources in the classroom to view videos, images of historical artifacts, photographs, art and listen to audio clips of interviews, sermons, speeches, readings of poetry and musical performances. Expect to be actively engaged in this class, which includes small and large group discussions, full class workshops, and oral presentations.

ENG 341: African American Women’s Writings (TR 2:00 - 3:15 pm) - Professor Elizabeth Cali

This course will explore a number of literary themes, traditions, and forms of expression in African American women’s writing from the 19th century through to contemporary Black women’s writings. As a class we will explore the ways that African American women writers used oral, textual, and visual productions to represent their specific raced and gendered experiences of the world. Texts covered will include Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and Toni Morrison’s Sula. Students can expect to engage with a variety of literary mediums independently and in small and large group activities in this class.

ENG 343: Hip Hop & Black Consciousness (3:30 - 4:45 pm) Professor Howard Rambsy II

"My emancipation don't fit your equation.” —Lauryn Hill

"I'm like Che Guevara with bling on, I'm complex." —Jay Z

Listen. You already know what this class is about: the ways hip hop folks infuse ideas associated with Malcolm X, struggles for liberation, and serious knowledge into the culture. You know the deal too: we’ll listen to, analyze, and discuss works by Nas, Lauryn, Jay Elect, Kendrick, B.I.G. K.R.I.T, Dre3000, and obviously the “God” (Rakim). In the process of thinking about black consciousness in hip hop, we’ll seek to enhance our own consciousness. You down? Get at us; we’ll be here.

ENG 446 Studies in Afr-Am Lit: Spiritual Perspectives in Af-Am Lit. (MW 12:00-1:15 pm) - Prof. Tisha Brooks

This course takes seriously the spiritual experience and legacy of black people in America, considering, through close analysis of a range of African American texts, the ways in which that spiritual experience has been shaped by and has offered a critical response to the realities of social difference, including race, class, gender and sexuality. Responding to the challenge of Black Feminist scholars that we consider the diversity of spiritual perspectives at work in African American literature, this class explores the ways in which these multiple spiritual trajectories shape African American texts in critical ways. While the study of African American literature will be our primary method of unearthing the spiritual practices of black people, this course is interdisciplinary in scope—including literary, historical, theological, and sociological readings. Though this course will include readings from the 19th-century, most of the required texts will span the late 20th to the early 21st centuries and will include a mix of genres: autobiography, novels, short stories, poetry, and film.

Related:
• African American Literature @ SIUE