ENG 356 - Studies in African American Literature

The Black Radical Tradition V: The Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement is often referred to as the artistic wing of the Black Power movement. The artists who participated in the BAM were “cultural nationalists,” as opposed to the “revolutionary nationalists,” who were best represented by the Black Panther Party. Members of the BAM believed in the need for racial pride among Black people, self-determination, and the need for cultural institutions. The official start of the Black Arts Movement is identified by the creation of one such cultural institution: the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School (BARTS), founded by Amiri Baraka in Harlem in 1965. Amiri Baraka is widely known as the father of the Black Arts Movement. He set the tone for the type of politically conscious work that the Black artists at the time would create. In 1965, he wrote an essay for The Liberator called “The Revolutionary Theatre.” In it, he details many things that the Revolutionary Theatre must do. He claims it must “force change,” it must “be change,” and it must “EXPOSE!” Baraka thought the revolutionary theatre, the theatre of the Black Arts Movement, must be political, and antithetical to what he believed Western theatre was doing at the time. This course will examine some of the major works produced during this period by writers such as Baraka, Larry Neal, Sonia Sanchez, Ed Bullins, and others.

Douglass/Delany
Most people are aware of the seemingly opposed positions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the 1960s about what course African Americans should take to achieve full freedom. This debate, however, goes back to the nineteenth century, with Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany taking opposing positions. Delany, despite having been admitted to Harvard Medical School in 1850 and kicked out after a month because white students protested, and having served as a major in the Civil War, believed, long before Marcus Garvey, that African Americans had no future in the United States and started a movement to emigrate to Africa. Douglass, in opposition, believed the only future was in the United States. We will read fiction and speeches by both men, including Delany’s novel Blake; or the Huts of America (1862), written in response to Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which he believed portrayed slaves as too passive. This course applies toward the department’s pre-1900 requirement.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): The Black Radical Tradition V: The Black Arts Movement: Two ENG, LIT, LITC, LITF, LITG, LITL, LITR, or LITS courses at the 200-level or higher

Douglass/Delany: Two ENG courses at the 200-level or higher
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 3 times for credit
Cross-listing(s): Douglass/Delany: CRES 336
Notes: Not all topics offered every year. Review schedule of classes for availability. Review specific descriptions for applicability to department requirements.

Douglass/Delany
This course applies toward the department’s pre-1900 requirement.
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.);
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts;
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).