123045 PS Literary Studies / Proseminar Literature (2021W)

In this course, we will read a few of the many key texts in African American Writing that have been published since the 1920s. Working closely with widely anthologized and canonized novels, essays, letters, speeches, autobiographical texts and poems, we will consider the changing factors that make a key text and address the inevitable omissions in the syllabus. We will situate the readings in their political and social context, while taking care to analyze them primarily as literary rather than ethnographic texts. The course aims to introduce students to the literary tradition of African American writing by seeing the texts on the syllabus in conversation with one another and as significant part of the foundation of current African American Writing.
In addition to the thematic focus, the course will cover the stages of the academic writing process, including developing a topic suited for literary analysis, conducting research, referencing, drafting, and revising. Most of the written tasks will be steppingstones towards the final assignment, the proseminar paper.