English 100

Other Readings and Media

Religious Experience; Stewart: Essays and Speeches; Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; Forten-Grimke: Journals; Keckley: Behind the Scenes; Smith-Foster: A Brighter Coming Day; Harper: Iola Leroy; Hopkins: Magazine Fiction; Larsen: Quicksand

Description

"This course surveys a variety of writing by early African-American women writers, both south and north, primarily of the nineteenth century. Readings include slave narrative, spiritual autobiography, memoir, journal writing, abolitionist and feminist addresses, poetry, a domestic novel, and a science-fiction novel. We will attend to the intersection of race and gender in relation to literary and social forms, the politics of voice and print, and varying historical and literary contexts of reception�not to formulate a unified ""tradition,"" but to understand the variety and complexity of nineteenth-century black women's engagement in social and literary fields. Students will also be introduced to current critical debates in the field through relevant scholarly articles. "