230642 “Don’t let them run over you”, African American Women Writing (S) (WiSe 2010/2011)

“Don’t let them run over you”: African American Women’s Writing

Throughout their presence in the U.S.A., African American female writers have created an important, though not always acknowledged, niche for themselves within U.S. American literatures. By reading poetry, slave narratives, novels, essays, speeches and theatre, this course will explore how ethnicity, gender, class, and socio-economical context are fundamental to the shaping of the writing of black women in U.S. American society. In order to do so, we will engage with the background of each writer as well as a brief overview of African American writers in general to better understand the historical, social, and political forces that have shaped their writing.

Bibliography

Texts Required:
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. with CDs. New York: Norton, 2004.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Kincaid, Jamaica. The Autobiography of My Mother
Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Morrison, Toni. Beloved
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple