In this course, we will read African American narratives of liberation from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. We will look at the many different concepts of freedom--political, economic, social, aesthetic, psychological (to name but a few)--which have informed African-American writing for the last three hundred years. Starting with the examination of slave narratives, and ending with two classic twentieth-century neo-slave narratives, we will discuss the fundamentally American valorization of "freedom" and how black writers have defined freedom for themselves and for their people.

Texts

Gates, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

Ellison, Invisible Man

Morrison, Beloved

Petry, The Street

Class Meetings

The class meets from 9:30-12. We will not meet on Wednesdays, but I will be available in my office for individual discussions on Wednesday mornings.

Course Requirements

Your final grade is determined by several components: a brief paper (5-7 pages on a topic of your choice), a longer paper (7-10 pages on an assigned topic), assigned discussion leadership, class participation, and regular attendance. If you receive a "no credit" in more than one component of the class, you will not pass the class, regardless of your grades in the other components.

Attendance, etc.

More than one unexcused absence will lower your grade one increment. Students who come in after 9:40 will be marked absent for that class. I do not accept late papers. Problems with oral reports must be discussed with me AT LEAST 12 HOURS before they are due.

Honor Code

I expect all students to adhere to the Honor Code of The Colorado College.

WEEK ONE

Monday: Introductions. The conventions and history of the slave narrative.

Tuesday: In the Norton anthology, excerpts from the Olaudah Equiano Narrative (138-164)

Wednesday: OFF TO READ

Thursday: Douglass, Narrative Introduction, Preface, Letter, and entire narrative (to page 80).

Friday: "Letter from a Former Slaveholder" and Douglass, "Reply to Thompson's Letter" (in Narrative, 88-96); Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" (in Narrative, 116-127) and Gregory and Stanton, (127-130). Each student will be assigned to read, present a written summary for the class, and be prepared to discuss one of the following critical essays in the Norton edition of the Narrative: Stepto, Andrews, Baker, and McDowell.

WEEK TWO

Monday: In Norton anthology, excerpts from Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (207-245).

Tuesday: In Norton anthology, excerpts from Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery (488-521) and W.E.B. DuBois, from The Souls of Black Folk (613-649 and 712-740).

Wednesday: OFF TO READ AND WRITE. PAPER due 12 noon.

Thursday: Petry, The Street (Chapters 1-7)

Friday: Petry, The Street (Chapters 8-12)

WEEK THREE

Monday: Petry, The Street (Chapters 13-end)

Tuesday: Ellison, Invisible Man (Prologue and Chapters 1-6)

Wednesday: OFF TO READ.

Thursday: Ellison, Invisible Man (Chapters 7-15)

Friday: Ellison, Invisible Man (Chapters 15-end)

WEEK FOUR

Monday: Morrison, Beloved (Book One)

Tuesday: Morrison, Beloved (Book Two)

Wednesday: Final Paper Due 12 noon.