ENGL 12: AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

Foothill College Course Outline of Record

Foothill College Course Outline of Record
Heading	Value
Units:	4
Hours:	4 lecture per week (48 total per quarter)
Advisory:	Demonstrated proficiency in English by placement via multiple measures OR through an equivalent placement process OR completion of ESLL 125 & ESLL 249.
Degree & Credit Status:	Degree-Applicable Credit Course
Foothill GE:	Area VI: United States Cultures & Communities, Area I: Humanities
Transferable:	CSU/UC
Grade Type:	Letter Grade (Request for Pass/No Pass)
Repeatability:	Not Repeatable

Student Learning Outcomes

Identify significant literary, social, cultural and political issues in 19th-21st century African American writing.
Identify fundamental elements of African American culture as represented in the literature.

Description

Literature by African Americans beginning in slavery and continuing on into the 20th and 21st centuries. Discovery of many of the current stereotypes in American cultural mythology about African Americans. Study of the complex and varying forms of resistance and creation African Americans have developed. Definition of issues and strategies in writings from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, including audience, identity (self), gender, family, culture, politics, spirituality and language. Intended for students wishing to transfer and/or students interested in African American literature.

Course Objectives

The student will be able to:
A. identify significant literary, social, cultural, and political issues in 19th-21st century African American writing.
B. recognize the tenets of the American slave system and their effects on 19th-21st century writers.
C. compare various forms of resistance to slavery as represented in the literature.
D. examine various writing styles with relation to audience and purpose.
E. identify fundamental elements of African American culture as represented in the literature.
F. understand one's own culturally-determined perspective and how it might be viewed in the context of racial discourse, from the perspective of others.

Course Content

A. Significant literary, social, cultural, and political issues
1. Construction of the literary Self
2. Autobiography as act of liberation
3. Definition and exploration of "double-consciousness" (Dubois) and social and cultural implications for both blacks and whites
4. Abolition
5. Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction
6. Great Migration
7. Harlem Renaissance
8. Negro Protest Literature
9. Exploration of contemporary African American writers in relevant social contexts
B. Tenets of American slave system
1. Construction of racist stereotypes to justify slavery
2. Social and political norms of slaveholding society
3. Popular literary genres for southern and northern white men and women
C. Forms of resistance
1. Literary forms and tropes
2. Metaphors of Spiritual Resistance
3. Testimonies of physical and cultural resistance
4. Community-based sensibilities
D. Writing styles with relation to audience and purpose
1. Slave Narratives
2. Poetry
3. Drama
4. Novel
5. Expository and Personal Essay
E. Literary representations of African American culture
1. West African cultural retentions
2. Creations in American culture: Black English, Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Rap, Hip-Hop
3. Issues of mixed heritages: color consciousness, class and categorization
4. Gender
5. Family and kinship ties
6. Spirituality
F. Understanding one's own culturally determined perspective
1. Race as a social construction
2. Social and economic contexts for racial categories
3. Historically determined views of human beings as "other"
4. Internalization and projection of culturally determined racial categories

Lab Content

Not applicable.

Special Facilities and/or Equipment

A. When taught via Foothill Global Access, on-going access to computer with email software and hardware; email address.

Method(s) of Evaluation

Methods of Evaluation may include but are not limited to the following:

Methods of evaluation may include:
A. Critical papers, out-of-class
B. Participation in class discussions and textual analysis
C. Presentations/reports
D. Midterm examination(s), in-class
E. Final examination
F. Quizzes on reading material

Method(s) of Instruction

Methods of Instruction may include but are not limited to the following:

The instructor will deliver course material via lecture, discussions, and audio and video presentations.

Representative Text(s) and Other Materials

When choosing texts for this course, the instructor may wish to choose from a range of genres: slave narrative, autobiography, essays, poetry, drama, novels, short story. The following are examples of the kinds of texts which are appropriate to this course:
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. HarperCollins, 2013.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Narrative Critical Edition. W.W. Norton, 2016.
Norton Anthology of African American Literature. W.W. Norton, 2014.
Wilson, August. Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Theatre Communications, 2008.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between The World and Me. Penguin Random House, 2015.

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing, and Outside of Class Assignments

A. Reading and analyzing literary texts
B. Formal essays
C. Informal writing projects, such as journal entries, reader responses
D. In-class examinations
E. Class participation, student presentations

Discipline(s)

English

Academic Catalog