ENGL 398 3 Credit Hours
Landmarks of African American Literature
This information is for second semester 2017/2018 academic year
Teacher responsible
Dr. P. Kwame Adika
Availability
This course is available open to all visiting students but only as a second semester course.
Course Content
This course is aimed at providing an in-depth study of major movements within the African American literary tradition and draws on a small set of seminal or canonical works by major writers in that tradition.
Issues such as cultural identity and the literary imagination, race and literature, aesthetic standards and subversions of the same, gender relations in literature, slavery and the Pan-African tradition in African American literature, etc., shall inform our readings and class discussions.
This semester’s course is organized around selected creative works by leading African American writers in the genres of prose fiction, drama, and poetry. Our readings of primary texts shall also be complemented with critical input from relevant scholarly works.
Teaching
Wednesdays, 7.30-9.20 a.m.
To achieve the goals of this course, weekly discussions organized around pre-assigned readings shall be the main mode of learning in the class. Student input shall be encouraged in the context of these discussions. This is a reading-intensive course that compresses a week’s load of readings into a single day’s discussions. On a given meeting day, students may be expected to have read and developed thoughtful opinions about one hundred or more pages of text. In other words, students shall be expected to read the assigned texts before each class session, and be ready to engage in active discussions about them. Students shall also be expected to come to class with copies of all required readings in print form, and provide timely responses to class tests and other assignments.
Formative Coursework
The final grade for this course shall consist of 30 points for Continuous Assessment and 70 points for the final exams. The points for the Continuous Assessment shall be derived from class tests or any similar assignments administered at appropriate points in the semester. Grading standards for this course will be tough but fair. If any student has questions about grades or grading standards, it is the student’s responsibility to seek clarification from us. As a matter of fact, it is best to seek such clarification in the first week of classes.
Course Materials:
Every effort has been made to select texts that are available at the University Bookshop, Vidya Bookshop, or E.P.P. Books. Photocopies of rare texts will be made available at the Department Office, and it shall be your responsibility to acquire those.
Langston Hughes: Selections of Poetry/Prose
Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun
Malcolm X: The Autobiography of Malcolm X*
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Richard Wright, Native Son
Suggested Additional Texts:
David Levering Lewis: When Harlem Was in Vogue (Introduction)
Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon
Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Barack Obama: Dreams from My Father
Grade Interpretations:
Letter Grade Marks Grade Point Interpretation
A 80-100 4.0 Excellent
B+ 75-79 3.5 Very good
B 70-74 3.0 Good
C+ 65-69 2.5 Fairly good
C 60-64 2.0 Average
D+ 55-59 1.5 Below average
D 50-54 1.0 Marginal pass
E 45-49 0.5 Unsatisfactory
F 0-44 0.0 Fail
