ENG 356 - Studies in African American Literature

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):

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 up to 3 times for credit if different topics.
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.

Not offered: 2024-25
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).