Undergraduate Course: Black American Fiction (ENLI10341)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will provide a thorough introduction to African American fiction, from the nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. All texts will be studied in both their socio-historical and literary-historical contexts, and distinctive narrative patterns will be evaluated |
| Course description |
This course will provide a thorough introduction to African American fiction, from the nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. All texts will be studied in both their socio-historical and literary-historical contexts, and distinctive narrative patterns will be evaluated. Key areas of cultural interest - including the Harlem Renaissance (1920's/30's) and the Black Arts movement (1960's/70's) - will be considered alongside broader social and political events: slavery and its abolition, post-Civil War Reconstruction, segregation and "Jim Crow", Panafricanism, the Civil Rights Movement, the increasing influence of Black womanism, and others. Although the primary texts are all narrative prose fiction, we will also read poetry and non-fictional prose as supporting material when relevant.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
2000 word coursework essay (30%) submitted mid-semester;
plus 3000 word final essay submitted during exam period (70%).
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Students should be able to discuss distinctive attributes of Black American fiction and to be able to historicize these.
- Students should be able to explain and employ key relevant theoretical approaches
- Students should be able to account for formal innovations in the literature
- Students should be able to historically contextualise the literature
- Students should be able to refer to non-primary materials to explain Black American literary developments
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Reading List
Primary texts
Phillis Wheatley, Selected poems (c1770) [poems will be made available on LEARN]
Frederick Douglass, 'The Heroic Slave' (1852) [link to e-text will be made available on LEARN]
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903). OUP, Oxford World's Classics, 2008.
Jean Toomer, Cane (1923). Liveright Publishing, 2011.
Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928). Vintage Classics, 2022.
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Virago, 2018.
Richard Wright, Native Son (1940). Vintage Classics, 2020.
Ralph Ellison, 'Mister Toussan' (1941), 'In a Strange Country' (1944), and 'Flying Home' (1944) [these are short stories that will be made available on LEARN]
Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo (1972). Penguin Modern Classics, 2017.
Octavia E. Butler, Kindred (1979). Headline Publishing, 2018.
Toni Morrison, A Mercy (2008). Vintage, 2009.
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Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Keith Hughes
Tel: (0131 6)50 3048
Email: keith.hughes@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk |
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