ENG 76-332 - African-American Literature and the Popular Front (1934-1956)
(Professor R. Purcell)

This course will use the collapse of the Popular Front (1934-1939) after the Molotove-Ribbentrop Pact, World War II and the onset of the Cold War as a starting point to read canonical and not so canonical African-American writers of the twentieth century. Central to this course are the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright and Ralph Waldo Ellison, three of the most important African-American writers to come out of this period. While the Harlem Renaissance is a crucial moment in the history of African-American literature it has also over-determined our present and past attempts at canon building, literary criticism and theoretical elaboration concerning later twentieth and twenty-first century African-American literature.

The fact is Hurston, Wright, Ellison – who are foundational to the professionalized field of African-American literary criticism – and many other African-American writers did their most important writing after the Renaissance was over. And both Hurston and Ellison were very skeptical of what they separately termed “the so-called Harlem Renaissance.” For instance, it is during and after the Popular Front that Hurston published Mules and Men (1935), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and Moses Man of the Mountain (1939). Wright published Uncle Tom's Children (1938), Native Son (1940) and 12 Million Black Voices (1941) in this period. Ralph Ellison was also productive; writing or publishing many of his shorter works of fiction and criticism. More importantly, he began to draft Invisible Man (1952) in 1945, which marks the end of the Front, World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.

Not only will we read the works of Hurston, Wright and Ellison but many of their contemporaries including W.E.B. Dubois, George Schuyler, Chester Himes, Anne Petry and James Baldwin. Through their writings we can understand the myriad of intellectual and imaginative approaches African-American writers had to literary craft, fascism, labor, America's entry into World War II, the onset of the Cold War and finally their respective intellectual stances on race, racism and each other.

In many ways this course is an experiment. And at the end of it I hope we can come to some provisional conclusions. Is this volatile period of American and global history an adequate way of reimagining the study of twentieth and twenty-first century African-American literature? And more importantly, do the concerns these writers raise speak to our own historical moment, which is experiencing great cultural, economic and political change as well?


HIST 79-273 - Introduction to African Studies
(Professor A. Paulos)

This course is designed to give students an overview of historical, political, social and economic developments in Africa. The course will begin with an examination of selected ancient African kingdoms. Pre-colonial African political systems will be discussed. That will be followed by discussion of Africa during the middle ages. Colonialism, nationalism, and post-colonial state will be covered. Vital issues such as democratization, conflict resolution, human rights, globalization, and Pan-Africanism will also be discussed.

HIST 79-341 - Race Relations in the Atlantic World
(Professor S. Alfonso-Wells)

This course is an analysis of the dynamics of race relations in the Atlantic world through the intersections of race, gender and social class. We will explore the socio-historical and present interactions of “the races” and the construction of racial identity in a variety of circumstances and cultures. We will also use film, music, literature, and concrete examples from world events to examine the asymmetrical power relations that have developed between populations living in close proximity. An important aspect of the course will be the deconstruction of whiteness, blackness, otherness, and the norm in the context of group interaction and the distribution of power. The focus of this class will be on specific examples from North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America.