ENLT-411: African American Lit

Cultural Diversity, Arts & Letters-Literature. A study of the history of African American literature. The course begins with early writings by slaves (these may include Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs); moves through the nineteenth century to study the Harlem Renaissance writers of the early twentieth century (including W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston); continues into the twentieth century to investigate post-World War II works (by such writers as Ralph Ellison, Lorraine Hansbury, and Gwendolyn Brooks); and ends with investigating contemporary African American texts (these may include novels by Toni Morrison and movies directed by Spike Lee).