ENGL2410 - 01 - African Amer. Literary Giants

(LI) Literary Inquiry (DM) Diversity and Multiculturalism

This course provides a comprehensive survey of two iconic African Americans: Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. It allows students an intensive study of black writing from the nineteenth century to the present, while at the same time engaging with contemporary issues facing African American communities in the United States and abroad. Studied themes include the following: literature and politics, race in America, the history of slavery in America, and the relationship between black literature and black music. This course examines a selection of Morrison's and Baldwin's body of work as they address key issues in African American, American, and African diasporic modern history. In other words, students study these writers both as American figures and transnational figures who carry global sensibilities in their work. We will also examine their work as it lends to discussion of contemporary issues of social justice including the legacy of American slavery, mass incarceration, police brutality, racial profiling, and income inequality.