English 203

Book List

Cullen, Countee: Color; Cunard , Nancy (ed.): Negro: An Anthology; Hughes, Langston: Fine Clothes to the Jew; Hughes, Langston: The Big Sea; Hurston, Zora Neale: Mules and Men; Hurston, Zora Neale: Their Eyes Were Watching God; Johnson, James Weldon: The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man; Larsen, Nella: Passing; Locke , Alain (ed.): The New Negro: An Interpretation; McKay, Claude: Harlem Shadows; Thurman, Wallace (ed.): Fire!! A Quarterly Dedicated to the Younger Negro Artists; Toomer, Jean: Cane

Description

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of black artists and writers in the 1920s and 1930s. Centered in New York, its activities extended outward through international collaboration. We will be reading works by writers including Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston as well as manifestos about the nature and function of black art. Course themes include migration and metropolitan life, primitivism and the avant garde, diaspora and exile, passing and identity, sexuality and secrecy, and the relationship between modern art and folk tradition.

Link to syllabus