College of Liberal Arts
Please direct all questions about the flag proposal process to the Center for the Skills & Experience Flags.
E 379R: Black Literature, Art, and Aesthetics
Department of English
Please describe specifically which underrepresented group or groups in the United States will be studied.
African-Americans born in the U.S.; Jamaicans who have migrated to the U.S. and written about the U.S.; African-Americans and other minority-American groups including First Nations (Native Americans) in the U.S.
What are typical readings in the course or class related to Cultural Diversity in the United States?
Langston Hughes, a well-known African-American poet and novelist who writes about the experience of black writers in Harlem and in the South during the era of the “New Negro/Harlem” Renaissance; A variety of essays by award-winning (Pulitzer, Guggenheim, Spingarn Medal, etc.) black writers included in the anthology Within the Circle: African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present (Duke UPress): Including: “New Poets,” “The Black Aesthetic,” “Our Literary Audience,” “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” The Idea of Ancestry,”
Describe typical assignments related to Cultural Diversity in the United States.
Students are assigned several free-writing, quizzes, essays and other in-class assignments in which they are asked questions designed to encourage them to think critically about the role that cultural diversity plays in perspectives on what constitutes “Black” literature, “Black” history and art in relationship to mainstream U.S.-based literary and historical cultures. They are also required to conduct a 10-12 page research paper focused on major themes that address the issue of cultural and racial diversity and assimilation or standardization within U.S. cultures.
Please explain how at least one-third of the course grade is based on content related to Cultural Diversity in the United States.
The research paper (which counts for 30% of the final course grade) and the research presentation group assignment (which counts for 15% of the final course grade) are directly related to cultural diversity in the United States…Below is a sample topic assignment: Compare and contrast the similarities and differences in structure, style, imagery, in the depictions of rural and urban (or regional and cosmopolitan) participants, artists, intellectuals, or everyday individuals during the New Negro/Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights era, and/or the Black Arts Movement, or our contemporary moment. What are assumptions or stereotypes about each category (e.g. South vs. North, densely populated city vs. small rural town, agrarian vs. industrial, modern versus primitive) of study? What impact does the “perception of race” or racial diversity within America have on the writing and artistic production of a period?